Why I'm Voting...

Some of my students won't be voting, period and we gotta respect that cos from their perspective things don't change until the System itself changes; and the System ain't changing. Plus, when you got nothing on your mind but figuring out where to find food, clean water, gas and a warm place to stay at, voting may very well be your last priority. But what if the change we've been debating about starts with holding our local politicians accountable? Do we even know who they are? What if looking at our bad choices in mates and general know-how, the excuses we make for not doing so, and the definitions of what Black is and ain't or could be if we let go of past wounds is the key to finding our forward movement?

This Wednesday morning may very well be just another Wednesday morning, added with the burden of having to still deal with a hurricane aftermath. But I'm voting tomorrow cos I take pride in doing so. May not be the new year's eve feel we had back in '08, but I still believe we have an opp to be part of that change if we understand it begins with us, while the guy at the top does his part.

I'm voting cos I take pride in casting my vote. I'm voting cos I owe it to the ones before me who got murdered for daring to do so. I'm voting for Michelle cos I trust she'll make sure to keep her husband from negating the Black who initially abandoned him, then wouldn't accept him as Fam until south carolina said it was ok to have him sit at the Family Table. I'm voting cos my parents were never allowed to have their say in Port-au-Prince. I'm voting cos I think any country where a woman's body legally belongs to men is a very dark place to live in. I'm voting cos I wanna see all couples get the protection they need from grimies from either side of their blood take their belongings, including their own children, out of pure ignorance and spite. And I'm voting so that my vet students get the respect they've earned and deserve.

I'm voting to take back the piece of flesh that dog bit off when I was just learning my abc's, so that I can look at a dog today and not cringe at the very sight of it, the way we used to.