The question


So what are we going to do now?

States are doing their best to roll back advances in election reform throughout the country. Corporate leaders are speaking out against this legislation. Civil rights organizations are suing to stop this legislation. Legislators are being arrested protesting this legislation.

So again, I ask the question: what are we going to do now?

We, the average American citizens, cannot be totally apathetic about these bills being passed by legislatures controlled by people who want to limit access to democracy. They are also the same people who want to control people's identity, people's bodies and people's right to assemble and protest. That translates to our identities, our bodies, our rights to assemble and protest. It is too easy for us in the democratic republic form of government this nation-state created with the US Constitution to let others do the work, raise their voices and take the literal and figurative blows.

We don't have that luxury anymore.

Those in the community that support this legislation and the people that author these bills are active. They attend meetings. They watch the news. They reach out to their elected officials. They interact in their social circles, in-person and online. They even show up at Capitol buildings.
Whether they have all the facts or not, they engage. 

We should engage. And now.

History teaches us that if we don't engage, we lose what we have gained. It is easy to say they control everything, so what they give us, they can take away. Truth is what certain Americans have gained throughout our history, it has been a bloody struggle. Therefore, one cannot revoke what has been earned by blood without a struggle. They don't have the moral authority, and it is questionable in most cases whether they have the legal authority, to take away our rights.

Unless you don't exercise your authority.

If you, and I, don't vocally oppose such actions, we are abdicating our authority given to us by the Constitution of this country, and the men and women who sacrificed comfort, security and life itself for that power.

You have the power to challenge injustice. You have the power to rebuke oppression. You have the power to determine who your elected officials are. No matter your level of education or socioeconomic status. No matter what community you are from.

This is your charge. As well as mine, and others.

If you are reading this and you believe that you are doing everything you can to not allow certain actions to be taken that jeopardizes our democracy, then great. Pass it on and share it with others that need this charge. If you are like me, however, one needs to remind him or herself that freedom is not free and that we, as a free and determined people, must always be vigilant, and even defiant, to protect it.

We proclaim self-determination to limit how others try to define and restrict us. That should encompass our role in the governance of the nation we are citizens in. No one has the right to re-subjugate a people that simply yearns to be free, nor should those who seek such repression be given any sort of solace to do so. We must agitate, for that is the best way to cleanse our nation from this overwhelming stench of repression that has engulfed us for centuries.

We have dominion over forces that seek to harm us. Our recognition of that dominion should lead us to action. It does not matter how big your ripples are in the pond, just make some. Do not let anyone attempt to take your right to vote without a fight. Do not let anyone take your right to justice without a fight. Do not let anyone take your right to exist without a fight.

Now is the time for us to stand up for us. Now is the time for us to resist those that seek to harm us. Now is the time for us to do something for our present and our future.

Join the fight to defend our right to vote, by any way that you can.

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