I often wonder if people really think about what their vote is worth and how it effects all Americans, no matter what age,race,religion,nationality,sexual orientation,physical disability,gender identification,income…..the list just goes on and on.
I don’t think I truly realized or even thought about the value of my vote until I came out to my family and friends at the age of 32. Before that time I didn’t really think my vote would make any major change in the way our Country was run, or definitely did not think it would ever change the laws governing the LGBT community.
My earliest memory of Presidential Voting was in 1964. I was only 7 years old but I remember this because of what I learned at such an early age. It did not occur to me until many years later how significant this would be in my life.
In 1964 we lived in Houston,Texas. My dad worked for a Life Insurance company and had just been promoted to Manager of the Agency. We had just moved into the first house our family actually owned. It was so exciting to move into a home that belonged to us.
The house we had been renting was a small, 1000 square foot,3 bedroom home. My mom’s job was to take care of our family of 5-My Mom and Dad,myself age 7,my older sister age 8 and my brother who was 2.5 years younger than me. In the rent house my mom had no problem keeping up with cleaning the house, buying the groceries and taking care of 3 little hoodlums, but when we moved to the new house my mother was beside herself trying to keep up with a house double the size of our rent house, getting us to a new school, all of our family activities and now having to entertain when my dad had Company parties at our house. My mom always tried to keep a smile while having to deal with all of this and keep her sanity. We only had a washing machine so she actually had to dry all of our wash outside on a freestanding umbrella drying line. At this time my mom and dad could finally afford a housekeeper to come in a couple of times a month to help my mom catch up with baskets of laundry that had to be ironed, vacuuming,dusting and give my mom a chance to breathe.
Our housekeepers name was Ruby. A wonderful AA woman just a few years older than my mother who also had 3 children about the same ages as me and my siblings. My mom would drive her 2nd hand 57 Chevy to the bus stop a few miles away to pick Ruby up to come help out for the day. Ruby quickly became a part of our family. She’d even come stay with us when my parents went out of town for Company Conventions or when they had to go to Tyler to check on my housebound grandparents.
I remember in 1964 my parents, both Republicans, were voting for Barry Goldwateren.wikipedia.org/… . There were campaign signs in the front yard and neighborhood block parties to plan community campaigning. I was in 1st grade at Spring Branch Elementary School and our teacher let us play out voting in an election to see who we thought would be the next President. Of course we all voted as our parents were going to. I don’t even remember which candidate won the 1st grade election-Goldwater or LBJ….but there is a point to this part of my story.
When I got home that day I was so excited about what we had done in school. My mom was out shopping but Ruby was there when I walked in the door. I ran up to her and gave her a big hug and she wanted to know about my day at school. I told her about the Presidential Election and told her how much fun that had been doing the mock election, then I asked her “Who are you voting for for President?” She just smiled at me and said “I can’t vote. I have to pay a poll tax and I just can’t afford it.” She could tell I was confused and just said to ask my parents about it that night and they could explain it to me. I did ask my parents that night and I think being 7 years old they explained it to me the best they could knowing I would not totally comprehend how AA and other minorities could be charged a fee to be allowed the Right to Vote when White people were just automatically qualified. en.wikipedia.org/… I’ve attached the Wikipedia link so you can read the whole story about the poll tax.
You’ve heard the old phrase “History Repeats Itself” and it just seems the same type thing has happened again. When the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. In fact it allowed States to implement Voter ID Laws and worse. Here is just a section of an article written in 2014 by Mother Jones “ Within two hours of the Shelby decision, Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that the state's voter identification law—which had previously been blocked by a federal court—would be immediately implemented. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, another Republican, also immediately instated his state's voter ID law. About one month after the Shelbydecision, Republicans in North Carolina pushed through a package of extreme voting restrictions, including ending same-day registration, shortening early voting by a week, requiring photo ID, and ending a program that encourages high schoolers to sign up to vote when they turn 18. In October, Virginia purged more than 38,000 names from the voter rolls. Mississippi's Republican secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann, told the Associated Press in November that the state was going to start implementing its voter ID law by the June 2014 elections. (This proposal was undergoing Justice Department review when the Shelby decision came down.) In January, Republican Gov. Rick Scott attempted again (unsuccessfully) to purge noncitizens from Florida's voting rolls, a move he had tried previously in 2012, before being blocked by Section 5. And thanks to the Supreme Court ruling, South Carolina was able to implement a stricter photo identification requirement. www.motherjones.com/… Justice Ruth Ginsburg warned that getting rid of the measure was like "throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet." Chief Justice John Roberts voted to gut the Voting Rights Act on the basis that "our country has changed," and that blanket federal protection wasn't needed to stop discrimination. Obviously Justice Roberts was wrong in his judgement of discrimination in our country. It seems SCOTUS decided whose votes had worth and whose did not.
What your vote means to each person will be different. For so many of us in the LGBT Community our votes mean trying to achieve Equal Rights given in the Constitution. Something we are still fighting for. In Texas, NC, Mississippi and so many other states, we do not have the same protections that the straight community has as far as job protection and housing. As Democrats our votes mean protecting the right to Healthcare even when you have a pre-existing condition, which Paul Ryan has just suggested be taken out of healthcare. Our vote means trying to protect women’s right to choose as far as abortion and access to abortion and other women’s healthcare in states like Texas where Governor Abbott is trying to make it impossible for Abortion Clinics to stay open. Our vote means not only keeping the gun laws that are in place now but improving laws on gun safety and new laws about being able to sue gun manufacturers.
Mostly what our votes mean to me is protecting all the advances we have made and moving further ahead with increasing the minimum wage,equal pay for women,healthcare for all,working toward free college and debt interest reduction/forgiveness,paid family leave and so many other things Democrats believe everyone should have no matter race,sex,gender or income level. Our votes mean protecting the rights we have fought for and achieving Equality for All. Our votes mean help cutting out tax loopholes for the Rich and also keeping jobs here in America while penalizing Companies that outsource jobs overseas.
As Democrats we must come together to keep The White House. It’s time to get past the argument of not voting or writing in your candidate because they did not win the nomination. Voting for a 3rd party candidate will also take away from electing the Democratic Nominee and possibly losing so many of the Rights we have fought for. Each person must decide what their vote means to them but to me it means thinking of the needs of the whole country, those that barely get by, those that don’t have healthcare or ever see a raise and have to work 3 jobs just to get by. That is what we will get if we don’t make our votes have a purpose for the greater good.
By the way, at the end of that first year in our new house my dad got a new company car, he was able to buy his previous company car for my mother and my Mom and Dad were able to put our 57 Chevy in Ruby’s name and give her her first car to ever own. It just felt wonderful to be able to do that for Ruby who was now family.