Supporting the Fair Fight
This
post, by poet and author Lindsay
Young, really resonates with me as I wrestle with how I can lend my voice
to help change the systemic and institutionalized racism that is woven into the fabric of America.
The
book I just published, Death’s Door,
is full of musings about bias and activism, preconception and responsibility,
and for some readers, it seems to be landing squarely in the zone of “exactly
what I needed to read right now.” For a lot of reasons, not the least of which
is the main character’s activism and social conscience, I’ve decided to use
Death’s Door to further a cause I feel passionate about – the right to vote.
Former
President Barack Obama just wrote in response to the protests happening around the
country: “The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight
on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable; in fact, throughout
American history, it’s often only been in response to protests and civil
disobedience that the political system has even paid attention to
marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be
translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect
government officials who are responsive to our demands … It’s mayors and county
executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining
agreements with police unions. It’s district attorneys and state’s attorneys
that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved
in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions.” ~ Barack Obama
Nannie Helen Burroughs, an educator and activist for women's voting rights, when asked in 1915 what women could do with the ballot, responded pointedly: "What can she do without it?"
I
believe that voting is fundamental to our strength as a democracy. I believe
that politicians and policy-makers work for the people they represent, and that
we make our voices heard by choosing people who listen. I also know that since
the founding of a country in which a black man was only counted as three-fifths
of a person, and equal voting rights weren’t protected by law until 1965, there
have been policies and practices in place to deny American citizens the right
to vote.
"The right to vote freely for the candidate of one's choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government." ~ Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1964)
"Most
of us understand voter suppression as the 1960s images of billy clubs and hoses
and dogs barking — aggressive interference. But in the 21st century, voter
suppression looks like administrative errors. It looks like user error. It
looks like mistakes. But it is just as intentional and just as insidious."
~ Stacey Abrams, author, attorney,
and former candidate for Governor of Georgia
Between
2010 and 2018, 1.6 million voters were purged from Georgia’s voter rolls
leaving them ineligible to vote. In the 2018 election, nearly 30,000 voters
were forced to vote on a provisional ballot, most of which did not count. More
than 100,000 votes went missing in the 2018 Georgia Lieutenant Governor’s race
because of faulty voting machines, causing votes – most of which were in
predominantly black communities – to go unrecorded.
The problems in Georgia are not, however, just Georgia's problems, just as solutions won't exclusively affect that State.
In
November 2018, Fair Fight,
the political action group begun by Stacey Abrams to advocate for free and fair
elections, filed a historic civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the
Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and Georgia Board of Elections, challenging
the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election that discouraged and
disenfranchised voters. Fair Fight also exposed corruption and fought back
against 2019 legislation that – under the guise of election reform – put special
interests and vendors before voters.
This is something I feel strongly enough about to have written a heroine who believes it, and I've decided that my lane
on the Resistance highway is free and fair elections to ensure that all voices are heard by the policy
makers we ask to work for us. To that end, all
of the ebook profits earned from sales and kindle unlimited reads of Death’s Door from now until the election
on November 3rd, 2020 will be donated to Fair Fight to aid in
their efforts to ensure democracy for all.
Death’s Door isn’t a long book, and it
isn’t an expensive book, so the thirty cents that each sale brings is a tiny
drop in the bucket this fight needs. But each drop adds a little bit more hope,
a little bit more community, and a little bit more love to that bucket, and in
the end, it’s a contribution we make together.
In the fall of 1849, Edgar Allan
Poe disappeared. He was missing for five days, and was then found wandering
near Gunnar's Hall in Baltimore, delirious and possibly drunk, wearing strange
clothes and carrying a cane. Poe died four days later in a Baltimore hospital,
never having regained proper consciousness except to call out for a mysterious
person by the name of “Reynolds.”
Of course Poe was a Clocker, and I knew I would write that story
someday. What I hadn't expected was who would find Poe when he stumbled into
the 21st Century.
Her name is Alexandra "Ren" Reynolds, and she has a
secret too.
To buy Death’s Door on Amazon or read it in
kindle unlimited: https://amzn.to/2AtlAsM
To donate
directly to Fair Fight: https://fairfight.com/about-fair-fight/
