And sho’nuff, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965. A century earlier, who’d have thought it possible — a white Southern teacher-turned-president taking a stand on the black community’s right to vote?
But before LBJ was like, ” I want you to write me the goddamnest, toughest voting rights act you can devise,” it took millions of people decades to build the civil rights movement to critical mass.
After all that, how could we possibly take voting for granted?
There are a lot of cynics out there, and I get it. Our political system is FUBAR. At the same time, there are so many of us not bothering to vote that it’s hard to know exactly what the possibilities are — especially at the local level.
If there’s even the slightest chance that your vote might count, you might as well do it. If in the end it doesn’t, then, well, it didn’t. But at least you didn’t shirk the opportunity.
