Getting the elderly and people who need assistance to the polls on November 4, 2008

[Ladybird Brown]

Check out this article...
One of my friend's mother wrote it.
Read it and PLEASE TAKE ACTION!!!


By Susan Watson
Canton, Michigan

On Nov. 4, 2008, Americans will, for the first time in history, have the opportunity to vote for a Black candidate who stands a good chance of being elected President of the United State of America.My only regret is that far too many of the people I love, African Americans who gave me the strength and courage to survive, are not around to vote on Election Day 2008. My mom died in 1965; my dad died in 1992, and my beautiful sister Jan died in 2001. Each was born before Blacks were allowed to vote in the South; each would be thrilled at the prospect of voting for Barack Obama for President.Were Mommy, Daddy or Jan still alive I would drive them to the polls this year. To be sure, all three would quality easily for an absentee ballot, but they would want to vote in person in this particular election. They would want to walk through the doors of the voting precinct, stand in the voting booth, mark their ballot and then slide the completed form into the tabulator.Well, I cannot take them to the polls, but I can do the next best thing. I can take one or more of our elders to vote on Election Day –and so can you. Maybe it's a member of your church, a neighbor, someone from a senior citizen's residence, an in-law or a former teacher. There are tens of thousands of African American senior citizens who would love to vote in person in this historic election. They deserve the opportunity to do just that. All they need is a little help from you and me -- the folks who benefitted from their struggles. It really wouldn't be all that hard.Local groups and individuals --from churches and civil rights organizations to block club captains and everyday citizens – just need to organize individual campaigns to transport seniors to the polls. Each group could figure out the best way to do it.There's no need for national committees or celebrity spokespersons; they'd probably just get in the way.Our ancestors were beaten, bombed, lynched, attacked by police dogs and mowed down by fire hoses because they demanded their right to vote. They stood up for themselves and for us. Surely we can find the time to give these living links to history the chance to vote in person for a candidate who represents, as Maya Angelou wrote, "the hope and the dream of the slave."