Time for Some Good Trouble

There is no denying America has reached a turning point. The world is watching to see which direction we the people will chose to take our country. How will history judge us? Only time will tell. However, we all have examples from the past that can help guide us. The good things we can build upon, the times were we got it wrong, we the people can surely change for the better with our vote.

In America, we are blessed to have a democracy as our foundation. “Putting it where the goats can get it,”(famous quote from the legendary Joe Madison) no one person is in total control our nation and the people decide who leads the way by voting in elections. Throughout history, including now, democracy has been tested. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke of such tests at Gettysburg. At the site where more than 50,000 men slaughtered one another over race in the Civil War, Lincoln addressed the nation and famously said, in an excerpt of his speech:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

At war's end, slavery was abolished and the 14th Amendment followed by the 15th Amendment were added to America’s constitution, officially granting African Americans citizenship and the right to vote. To this day, Blacks and people of color are still fighting for equal voting rights. Yet, with a very long and painful past of fighting for this precious right, some don’t even bother to use it.

Let me suggest to this person that now is a good time to put on your cape of pride. Now is the time to rise and take your place on the right side of history. Get in “Good Trouble” and take a stand for liberty and justice for all.

"When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something." -John Lewis

Be Seen. Be Heard. Vote November 3rd.