Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Don’t let us be to blame

October 10, 2016 by  
Filed under Highlights

BY LOUIE OVERSTREET

Louie Overstreet

If Hillary Clinton is not elected President of the United States, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

Folks, I don’t know what to say that hasn’t already been said concerning the importance of voting. To paraphrase a saying of unknown origin — electing Secretary Clinton is not a matter of life and death; it’s much more important than that!

I have written about the importance of voting for over 30 years, and I am ashamed to admit how many times I have heard the excuse, “My vote doesn’t count.” And that’s mostly from people who look like myself.

Please let me know what I am doing wrong. I’ve been telling these knuckleheads that a Civil War was fought to free us from bondage, before two amendments were added to the Constitution just to secure our right to vote I have tried to explain that Reconstruction only lasted for a little more than a decade because while Samuel J. Tilden received more popular votes than R.B. Hayes in the 1876 presidential election, Hayes claimed the presidency via Electoral College based on his pledge to remove federal troops from the South. This political move ushered in Jim Crow laws that resulted in more than 4,000 blacks being lynched in the South from 1877 through 1953.

After wearing myself out by repeating those arguments, to no avail, I tried to put my friends on a guilt trip. When I first started making this pitch back in the day, I was called a jive turkey, then nothing but a fool, and more recently a “butt boy” for the man!

Since we seem to have difficulty learning by positive reinforcement, or motivated to honor our ancestors by continuing to build the road of progress, let me tell you what to expect if “The Donald” wins in November. Simply stated, we ain’t got jack coming to us if he ends up in the Oval Office. So if you want to sit on your sorry butts and not vote, then don’t come complaining to me. You best believe I knew what Billie Holliday meant when she sang, “Momma may have … Poppa may have … but God bless the child that has his own.” I got mine by voting. So those of you who fail to vote, don’t expect to get yours!

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