The Most Rewarding Way to Celebrate the Martin Luther King Holiday !
The most rewarding way to celebrate the Martin Luther King Holiday is to ‘Get Out the Vote”. One of Martin Luther King’s many civil rights achievements involved protecting citizens’ Constitutional right to vote. REPUBLICAN governors and legislators ACROSS THE COUNTRY are rapidly dictating legislation to TAKE AWAY THE VOTING RIGHTS OF LATINOS, BLACKS, COLLEGE STUDENTS, THE ELDERLY AND THE POOR so that they CANNOT vote in the 2012 presidential, congressional, gubernatorial and state legislature election cycle. Like Martin and those who fought beside him of every race, color and creed, WE MUST TAKE DEMOCRACY BACK AND FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHT AND THE RIGHT OF OTHERS TO VOTE!
The Brennan Center of Justice at www.brennancenter.org › Resources › Publications reports that “state governments across the country enacted an array of new laws making it harder to register or to vote. Some states require voters to show government-issued photo identification of a type that as many as one in ten voters do not have.” Other states have “cut back on early voting, a hugely popular innovation used by millions of Americans.” Two states “REVERSED earlier reforms and once again disenfranchised millions who have past criminal convictions, BUT who are now taxpaying members of the community. Still others “made it much more difficult for citizens to register to vote, a prerequisite for voting.” Some states “block county election officials from mailing absentee ballot applications to all voters AND prepaying postage on absentee ballots”. Other states even went so far as to NO LONGER accept government-issued college student ID’s and Medicare ID’s, but ACCEPT CONCEALED GUN CARRY LICENSES for registration
The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law published a “MAP OF SHAME” outlining states where Republican elected officials are suppressing the right to vote. You can view the map at www.lawyerscommittee.org/.../voting.../7-6-11-Map-of-Shame.pdf
The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights have another website with links where you can obtain AND SHARE information about identification requirements of voting and registration in your state at www.dscc.org/FightVoterSuppression Fight Back Against Republican Voter Suppression Laws. Join the DSCC Now
Other websites where you can join the fight AND SPREAD THE WORD to stop REPUBLICAN voter suppression appear below:
www.dscc.org/FightVoterSuppression
www.aclu.org/maps/2011-voting-rights-under-attack-state-legislatures
www.takeactionminnesota.org/voter_suppression_legislation/92
Happy Birthday Martin!
