Tag Archives: Congress

They fought for our right to vote and suffered… We must Vote!


This post had to be reposted as we count down to the 2022 midterms

 
 
 

Over 50 years ago, African-Americans made up 45% of Mississippi’s population, but fewer than 7% of  Mississippians were registered to vote.

In June of 1964, civil rights groups came together to kick off Freedom Summer, a 10-week campaign to dramatically increase the number of registered black voters in the state.

More than 1,000 volunteers of all races and colors, from all over the nation, traveled to Mississippi to do this important work. While there, youth volunteers and their black Mississippian supporters suffered unimaginable levels of vitriol and violence, but they did not stop fighting for what was right.

In the end, Freedom Summer emerged as a defining moment in the civil rights movement, pushing our country one step closer to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The best way we can honor the work, bravery, and sacrifice of the Freedom Summer volunteers is to exercise the right they fought for so diligently.

Honor the mission of Freedom Summer by pledging to vote in this year’s midterm election.

The extremely low levels of black voter registration in the South were fueled by generations of discriminatory elections practices. States were legally able to hold whites-only primaries, collect poll taxes, and administer literacy tests. When legal barriers weren’t enough, lynchings and bombings—threats and fulfilled promises—kept even more African-Americans away from the polls.

Fifty years later, legislators are attempting to take us backward to 1964, weakening the VRA, making it ever harder for the poor and people of color to have their voices heard at the polls.

Don’t allow these lawmakers to roll back history. They can only win and keep their seats in office when people like you and I stay home during midterm elections.

Raise your voice against those who seek to violate civil rights and human rights. Make a pledge to vote this November:

http://action.naacp.org/My-Vote-2014

In solidarity,

Lorraine C. Miller
Interim President and CEO
NAACP

Do You Look Illegal… first posted in 2012… are things any different in 2023?


Immigration …

Republicans and some conservadems who say they want to help people get back to work, and give small businesses the means to create jobs have once again said one thing while on camera and then voted against the People of the United States. They say a small business needs to be helped because small business creates jobs … but Republicans lie and this is yet another example and now evidence of just what they have in mind for us … as Americans, we should all be outraged but use our voice and our votes to keep Republicans out of office. We need to vote for Politicians who have Americans’ best interests in mind, not …

I don’t believe Immigration is an issue that will bite the backs of any left-leaning politician because immigration has to be dealt with. It has to be comprehensive and, unlike what people on TV seem to want viewers to believe, immigrants, undocumented or not, didn’t just pop up after President Obama was elected. Immigration is the elephant in the room that Politicians on both sides of the aisle have avoided for decades unable to make progress on, the others who along with corporations were more interested in making a buck than solving the massive influx of undocumented people looking for jobs; not all immigrants or those called natural citizens are violent, take jobs away, are crazy or constantly break laws …

Immigration reform will ultimately affect every single person in this country. The notion that every State should be able to make up its own rules, policies, or laws is absurd, not to mention the crap coming from people on the right suggesting that the undocumented or illegals as they call them be rounded up and taken back to their homeland. The comment and the idea are not only offensive; the suggestion about how to pay for the round-up is in itself scary and brings up another time in History when the lives of people who were rounded up and well… we all know what happened, and thought it’s the 21st Century … men and women, called ICE Police, are engaged in rounding up what might be considered Dissidents for both concentration and internment camps.

It is time to ask yourself how many ethnic groups have come to America, been treated poorly, and yes, some succeed while others are still in the shadows, or in concentration camps in the year 2019. In this era of trump, the extreme right or white nationalists noticed the significant browning of America and are now suggesting an en masse round-up and deportation.  I will admit I was definitely offended and surprised that folks in 2010 would suggest using stimulus money to round up people and ship them back to their homeland, but what we heard doesn’t even match up to what we are now experiencing, in this era of trump or 2.o trump!

Is it me, or are these wild, wicked, and stupid comments from people getting on the airwaves, talking seemingly crazy and getting paid $175K to do #ThePeoplesBusiness, sound completely absurd?  The other question is, do most, if not all, long for a time when most Women and folks of colour were not seen or heard ?  They performed duties that the white masta set

Repealing Obamacare cost America at least $70 million with over 50 attempts in 2014, now 63 attempts in 2016 … so, you do the math

A Cruz Government Shutdown cost $24 billion

Benghazi Hearings cost almost $8 million, maybe more!

Email gate cost $82 million or more

The current bills brought to the floor of Congress should give everyone engaged in living in this 21st Century life and the country an opportunity to stop, consider, and debate the obvious ramifications, maybe accept that comprehensive immigration reform needs to be clearly explained and understood. Unfortunately, what the right calls Amnesty. It would be in all of our best interests for those on the right to avoid the notion that all the undocumented or “illegals” are violent and malicious folks doing all kinds of bad things. However, they cannot help themselves though we all know that not all undocumented, “illegals” as they call the undocumented are bad and decades ago, employers decided to look the other way when folks started coming across the border to look for jobs getting the jobs that were paying little or nothing but saved them money.

It is time, to be honest, and deal with the reality of the impact and contributions that undocumented people have on the US economy, because it is big. The idea is not lost on me that the immigration laws republicans want implemented across the country would also have some negative consequences on all folks of colour, women, children, as well as the elderly, by pushing Americans back to a time that we all hoped was nearly gone and stayed in our history books.

However, we have to remind people that we cannot go backward. It was not that long ago when women and people of colour were seen as 3rd class citizens, and servants, and rarely heard from by anyone unless they were forced to do the unthinkable or worse.

Photo is from Getty Images.

a Letter From Virginia ~In Memory~ (Free Before Emancipation) ~~ July/August edition


Letter From Virginia
Excavations are providing a new look at some of the Civil War’s earliest fugitive slaves—considered war goods or contraband—and their first taste of liberty

 click on the graphic below to get the complete story, it’s six pages of American History

(Library of Congress)

Following an 1861 decision by a Union general, escaped slaves were declared contraband, or illegal war goods, and freed. Thousands of fugitive slaves, including this group in Pamunkey Run, Virginia, provided the Union army with labor and established independent communities.


Quote of the Day …


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“Just because you think the path that’s right for you might be lonelier, longer, or less destined for traditional success than paths taken by others, don’t be afraid to take it. If you choose your means well, you will end up in the right place.”

Hello June … hug a friend


 

Pipsqueek says:  I’m so happy your my friend!