Our young African-American people have lost interest in the value of voting. In my opinion, I don’t think they understand the meaning of voting and how valuable it is to our society.
For the past few days, I have been hearing my peers say things such as “My vote does not count.” If I ask if people going to vote, I get the response, “For what?” It saddens me that our African-American ancestors, and even those who still living, fought for this right. How quick we take it for granted?
In the past,we were not given the right to vote. They would have us take very petty tests, such as guessing how many gum balls are in a jar or having a bar of soap out and have us try to figure out how many bubbles it will produce. On top of trying to make us take these degrading tests they brought dogs, fire hoses and police brutality. Our black people were beaten, hosed down, spit on and locked up — all for wanting the right to vote.
Now we have the privilege and how soon we forget. Voting is not a privilege; it’s an obligation not only for trying to make a change but for our ancestors.
My peers are forgetting how much we fought for this right and thinking that their vote does not count. I wish we would think back to our history. If your vote really didn’t count, why would they have gone through so much trouble to make it so difficult for us to vote — it does count!
— Joydan Dawson
