Voting: a hard-won privilege

On Nov. 2, if you're registered, please vote. This year let's not do what we did four years ago. This is not a comment on the current administration. This speaks to those folks who'd make a dentist appointment before they'd ever get themselves to the polls.

In the 2000 Presidential election only 52 percent of the eligible population voted. Fifty-two percent. That's not only disgraceful, but it diminishes the efforts of those citizens who struggled these past 200 years so that everyone is equally represented in this country.

In colonial times, rich, white, male landowners dictated how the rest of us lived. The rest of us were poor and white, Native Americans, women and slaves. It took until 1847 for the poor, white guy to get the vote. Not much of a milestone for the rest of us.

A year later, white women weighed in, demanding the vote. But the white men argued that women were too emotional to make a rational decision. That nonsense held white Montana women in check until 1914 when they were at last allowed to cast a ballot. States like New York, Michigan and Oklahoma dragged their feet for several years longer before elevating their women to first class citizen status.

Native Americans had no vote until 1924 when the United States Congress passed legislation extending United States citizenship to all Indians born in the United States. It's still shocking but the first people here, on this land, were silenced until then.

Black American males got the vote in 1870, but obscene hurdles were put in place to keep them from iqualifyingi for something that was guaranteed them by the 15th Amendment. One of the most egregious obstacles was the literacy test. Black men had to prove they could read and write before they were allowed to vote. It would take until 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act for blacks, to secure voting protection from the United States Government. That entity had to register voters in states like Mississippi because state officials refused to do their job.

One of the most blatant cases of voter discrimination ended with the 26th Amendment. As a nation we deployed 18-year-olds to fight and often die in Vietnam. Yet it took until 1971 for these brave young men and women to be able to decide who sent them into battle.

We are a republic. We've authorized others to govern us. Only we, with our vote, determine what these elected representatives do on our behalf.

Before Nov. 2, verify the location of your polling place. In case it's needed, be sure to bring some kind of identification. If you arrive to vote late in the day, stay in line. Even if the polls close you are still entitled to vote. This is the most precious of our freedoms. It's incumbent upon each and every one of us to show up and VOTE. Universal suffrage is not something we can ever take for granted.