Light Turnout
Light Turnout
By Anthony Harris ’08
I’ve been looking forward to this day for weeks now. I woke up this morning brimming with anticipation. At 8:40 this morning, I walked to Archer Hall and cast my vote. I was filled with anticipation, and then I walked into the gym. My first thought was surprise. I figured I was late and I’m be stuck in line for about an hour. I knew I would still make my 10AM lab, but it turned out that I’d be far ahead of time. As I sat filling out the necessary paperwork to complete my civic duty, new feeling came over me. I was upset. Flabbergasted. Why was no one else here? I walked up to the poll worker to check myself in and she said that I was the second vote to vote that day. The polls have been open for an hour and forty minutes and I had been the second person to vote so far. I cast my ballot with little problem and left, outraged and disappointed in my Morehouse brothers (and I have giving the “disappointed in my Morehouse brothers” speech that we hear all the time). I left yelling at buildings filled with slumbering student. A caricature of a Spike Lee film. “Wake up! WAKE UP! Men of Morehouse vote!” My cries fell on deaf ears.
Voter turnout has been low across all of Atlanta this election day. The Peyton Forest area reported more poll workers than voters this election day according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Why are we treating this day like any other Tuesday? Why are we not concerned about this city. Why are we not concerned about this community? It doesn’t matter how many park cleanups or fundraisers you have for clothes for crack heads if you don’t have the necessary funds to support the area fully. The way to allocate those funds is through the government, specifically the City Council. You need a levelheaded mayor. You need fair judges that will be fair against trigger-happy Cobb County police officers. We can’t just care about the national system. We’re still in Iraq. We’re still in a declining economy. We’re still getting conservative judges that probably don’t care for people with our skin condition. We need to move onto local problems like how to make this community grow financially. We need to improve our condition not only from the outside as revolutionaries, but also from the inside. We need our levelheaded Martin’s, our radical Malcolm’s, our confrontational Huey’s, and our system changing Barrack’s. The whole revolution may not be televised, but some parts are going to need some press. We can’t revolutionize the system if we don’t work with it from time to time. We need to vote every election day whether it is for school board (so Black children can learn about themselves) or for President (so Black children don’t die in unnecessary wars).
But I haven’t told you all this before, so I’ll give you a little leeway this year. But I don’t want to see any slacking during the midterms.
By Anthony Harris ’08
I’ve been looking forward to this day for weeks now. I woke up this morning brimming with anticipation. At 8:40 this morning, I walked to Archer Hall and cast my vote. I was filled with anticipation, and then I walked into the gym. My first thought was surprise. I figured I was late and I’m be stuck in line for about an hour. I knew I would still make my 10AM lab, but it turned out that I’d be far ahead of time. As I sat filling out the necessary paperwork to complete my civic duty, new feeling came over me. I was upset. Flabbergasted. Why was no one else here? I walked up to the poll worker to check myself in and she said that I was the second vote to vote that day. The polls have been open for an hour and forty minutes and I had been the second person to vote so far. I cast my ballot with little problem and left, outraged and disappointed in my Morehouse brothers (and I have giving the “disappointed in my Morehouse brothers” speech that we hear all the time). I left yelling at buildings filled with slumbering student. A caricature of a Spike Lee film. “Wake up! WAKE UP! Men of Morehouse vote!” My cries fell on deaf ears.
Voter turnout has been low across all of Atlanta this election day. The Peyton Forest area reported more poll workers than voters this election day according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Why are we treating this day like any other Tuesday? Why are we not concerned about this city. Why are we not concerned about this community? It doesn’t matter how many park cleanups or fundraisers you have for clothes for crack heads if you don’t have the necessary funds to support the area fully. The way to allocate those funds is through the government, specifically the City Council. You need a levelheaded mayor. You need fair judges that will be fair against trigger-happy Cobb County police officers. We can’t just care about the national system. We’re still in Iraq. We’re still in a declining economy. We’re still getting conservative judges that probably don’t care for people with our skin condition. We need to move onto local problems like how to make this community grow financially. We need to improve our condition not only from the outside as revolutionaries, but also from the inside. We need our levelheaded Martin’s, our radical Malcolm’s, our confrontational Huey’s, and our system changing Barrack’s. The whole revolution may not be televised, but some parts are going to need some press. We can’t revolutionize the system if we don’t work with it from time to time. We need to vote every election day whether it is for school board (so Black children can learn about themselves) or for President (so Black children don’t die in unnecessary wars).
But I haven’t told you all this before, so I’ll give you a little leeway this year. But I don’t want to see any slacking during the midterms.
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