Against the grain II

When you don’t vote you
enable DeSantis and Republicans

It gets annoying and seems like just an old broken record. You hear it election after election.  If you don’t vote, don’t complain.

Florida is pretty much under siege if you aren’t a conservative and especially if you are Black. The previous election cycle enabled the Republican Party to change Florida forever and if you are not in line with their agenda, it is downright scary.

I grew up hearing horror stories of what communism was. We were in a cold war with Russia and tales of what had happened with the German armies and how they took over countries and exuded their ideals and authority on the people of the world was scary. It was sad.

In no way, and I saying we in America are at either of those points, but we are certainly hostages in Florida. We can do nothing at this point but watch as the state is remade and along with it, history is being re-written right before our eyes.

The Republican Party is now a bulldozer running through the laws, protocols and mores of the state and leveling all who are in their path. The latest of these efforts has targeted the school systems in the state. The Florida Department of Education this week announced that among other changes, it wants students in Florida not to know the truth about slavery. It does not want middle passage, inhumane conditions, or the awful people who enslaved other humans to be taught in Florida schools.

Instead, they want to change the narrative so that children of White descendants of slaveholders do not feel guilty about the horrible true history of what actually happened in the state. They do not want it taught that the slave owners raped Black women at will. They do not want it taught that Blacks were used a property and sold and utilized for profit. They do not want today’s White kids to know that in conditions that a human would get the death penalty for transporting a dog in, is how the Blacks were packed into ships for the 80-day journey to America from Africa.

If there ever was whitewashing, this is it. No one blames today’s folks for what their ancestors did. We blame those who carried out the heinous act of slavery. It was a horrible institution and the most shameful act of another human. However, it happened.  We shouldn’t be hiding our heads in the sand and caring about the feelings of ancestors of the enslavers.  What about the feelings of the ancestors of the enslaved.

With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the seat, he has taken aim at so many things that are divisive. He is running for the presidency of the United States and has been steamrolling so much he could care less about any ramifications toward Blacks…because for the most part we don’t vote!

We have become so comfortable that we feel voting is a luxury. We have convinced ourselves of the narrative that our vote doesn’t count. We have all but withdrawn from the political process. Well, the result of that is having zero control of what goes on around you like Blacks currently in the state of Florida.  We are simply treading in the water at this point.

Since I turned 18 in 1984, I have only missed one vote. That happened because I simply had one of the worst migraines and could not drive. Even when I recovered a few days later, I felt guilty about missing my vote. From that time, I vote early as not to ever miss again.

Not voting is virtually agreeing with whatever policies are set before you. For all of us Blacks who sat home and didn’t vote, didn’t get educated on what was at stake, didn’t honor those who gave their lives so we could have the right to vote…this is on you!