WHY WE SHOULD VOTE

[Marketing Manager]

by George A. Fadil Muhammad

Despite the endless corruption of Republicans and Democrats and others, the constant lack of decent choices for political leadership, and the difficulty in making politicians and political systems to be accountable to us; one of the most powerful actions we can take is to be consistently registered and to vote in local, regional and national elections. The opinion polls of the media say we do not exist, but whether the voting machines are rigged or not, we should vote and let it be known as Langston Hughes declared, that we too are in America. We must study what and who is politically worthy and what and who is not; vote and continue to vote, get involved and fight for the accountability of leadership and to either redeem the system or renew our path all together.

Americans of all races can point to a history of bloodshed that today allows them the right to vote. Men, women, youth, Black people, First Nations or so called Indian people, Latino/Hispanic people, Asian peoples and even Caucasian ancestors have paid a great price of suffering and struggle in America to overcome oppression. In the case of Black people, the sit-ins, burnings, lynching, tortures, corrupted laws, long suffering fight against hate for the right to be treated as a human being is so well documented and obvious. So it is truly a sin and a crime to see the neglect and disregard that African American youth and adults have today for their responsibility to take control of the forces that shape their environment.

Purposeful apathy, trickery, ignorance of history, trifling excuses, a pitiful unawareness, and a modern day materialistic slave mindset has distorted black people and grips great numbers of today’s Negro-African Americans to the point that they shamelessly declare they have no interest in
demanding accountability from leadership or in building unity among their community. It is as if Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry McNeil Turner, Emmet Till, Lucy Laney, Minnie Smith , Elijah Muhammad, Nat Turner , numerous others never existed and waged their mighty fight and sacrifice for all our benefit today. We must change this right here in Macon.

To be a free man or woman in America requires intelligence, knowledge, participation, courage, and responsibility. Sadly we have been conditioned to be slaves, black and white, or Sheepeople, distracted, deceived, confused and readily led to the slaughter of material falsehood and tyranny. Too many of our youth are demoralized, self-destructing, rotting in prisons and jails. In America, the votes of a people speak that they are present and alive with the potential to unleash and enforce the natural sovereign power that belongs to the community to actively take charge of the political and economic systems that govern them.

Voting is a major step toward ensuring a higher degree of fairness, justice, wellness and freedom because we can if we prepare for the opportunity, remove leadership that does the community a disservice and replace them with better, fairer leaders. After voting, we must stay involved, ask critical questions, attend meetings, write letters, require follow through and reports, continue to monitor and evaluate the individuals we have elected. Do you actually believe that we collectively have been rightly served by the current leadership of Macon, Georgia’s political administration – Mayor, District Attorney, Judges, Sheriff, Board of Education, congressmen, senators, the tradition of the Bush Administration? Vote to change it! Vote to help President Obama, and correct President Obama!

In Macon, Georgia and Bibb County, in Twiggs County, in Fort Valley among other areas, the majority of people are Black Americans, who have the potential for tremendous influence on improving the condition of their own lives. Korean, Indian, and Jewish communities in particular exercise excellent economic unity and therefore possess a subtle but extensive political power as business and landowners. Yet they do not have the advantage of large populations that local Black and Caucasian and gradually also Hispanic communities do.

Politically and economically, if Macon-Bibb County’s black community would practice the operational unity and discipline to act for a common agenda to benefit their children’s future, this Middle Georgia area would be a greatly more prosperous and beneficial hometown for all of us of all backgrounds. But we have black leaders among us, influences from outside of us, and a mental disease within that makes us believe that there could be no greater sin than for us to work together.

These impediments to the success of black people in Middle Georgia and to the success of all of Middle Georgia because of our chronic lack of productivity, can be transformed by our purposeful practice of unity and supporting each other whenever possible, and by our rejection of all leaders of any race or background who claim to be with us but do not support and cultivate black economic unity, responsibility and strength. We cannot expect 100% compliance, but the determination of those who recognize the truth and the vital need to work together must be
faithfully cultivated and maintained. As it has been said in our turning to Jesus Christ – “whosoever will, let him/her come.”

We, as other successful people have done, must learn to follow the way of The Redeemer and to lead as “saviours”; serving the needs of the communities in which we live with wise, responsible, caring deeds of vision, or we can never aspire to our destiny of freedom. God helps those who help themselves. Vote and get involved to get yours, not just for you, but for your community collectively. Then and only then can we come to the table as equals not as beggars, in a position to truly help our own and others in need.