Who Controls YOUR Destiny

Do you realize that MOST POLICE DEPARTMENTS FALL under municipal, county, and state laws? They are controlled by mayors and councils, county councils, and governors that YOU ELECTED or not elect by not voting. Change in dynamics can be as simple as a VOTE. Green power is powerful, and hurt the merchants and the economy -- kind of like burning down Black businesses in your own community. VOTING ON THE OTHER HAND places people in office with the POWER TO MAKE LONG TERM CHANGES in the police department, service departments like social security, social services, transportation, banking, health care, and everything else.

The midterm round of elections is over, but LOTS of local elections are coming up in 2015 for many municipalities across the Country. GET OUT AND RUN FOR OFFICE! BUILD SOME COALITIONS to support change in your community. In order to make changes you MUST GET ON THE BALLOT. THEN GET PEOPLE TO THE POLLS to VOTE. According to the information I was able to find, here's what happened with the Ferguson’s municipal election in 2013:

Ferguson is 67 percent African-American, but five of its six City Council members are white. So is the mayor. Ferguson holds most of its elections in non-presidential years, and always in April, timing that typically leads to less minority turnout.

“In the 2013 election, the most recent municipal election in which racial data is available, whites made up 52 percent of voters in Ferguson. After the shooting in Ferguson, according to their board of election, the actual number of new registrants from Aug. 9 to Oct. 6 totaled just 128.”

My Mother told me many years ago, no one gives up power. Power must be taken, and the vote is power that is why it is and has been denied to Black people. We have been given the vote through the blood, sweat, tears, and deaths of many (Black and White), and we still walk around talking about "I don't vote." My vote does not matter." "My religion does not allow me to vote." "I don't have time to go to the polls." I don't like the candidates." "The machine is going to elect the machine." Come on people. PEOPLE ACTUALLY DIED to give you the power of the VOTE! It is because of the vote that you have "green power" as limited as it may be. Not shopping on Black Friday simply means everybody will shop on cyber Monday, and the rest of the Christmas season.

We are going to eat, go to work, and seek entertainment. Not many of us have gardens. Even fewer of us know how to can food from our gardens, and none of us in metropolitan areas can grow and can enough food to last as long as the people we elect and put into office (most get two to four year terms).

I say organize. I say register people to vote. I say develop relationships. I say hold those elected to office accountable. Go visit them in their offices. Bring with you a few of your community members. Place your issues and concerns on their tables. Create your own voice for your community. NO YOU DO NOT NEED A DEGREE IN ORGANIZING! All you need is an issue that people can agree on and support, the desire and the passion to bring about change in your community to improve the quality of life for yourself and those around you. Then you need to press forward on that issue. YOU CAN MAKE LONG TERM CHANGE.

Life and the quality of your life is largely in your hands, and what you choose to do or not to do is totally up to you.  I choose to ACTIVELY participate on ALL LEVELS.  I choose to stand up for those things I believe in.  I choose to vote in EVERY ELECTION, and if my candidate loses, then I have every intention of holding those elected accountable.  It is not about the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, Green Party or even those who claim to be independent.  It is about my quality of life and that of my family, friends, and neighbors.  I cherish my right to vote. 

I appreciate the fact that I was born in America and that I am an American, not a Black American, but an American.  Believe it or not I am not even an African American.  I have never been to Africa, and neither have my parents or grandparents.  I refuse to take on the description of African American because a White person born and raised in South Africa who comes to America and who becomes a citizen in America can also be an African American, and look nothing like me.  White Americans are not called Russian Americans or British Americans or German Americans.  They are called Americans, regardless of where they come from.  I did not come from any other country.  I was born and raised here in America.  I am an American, and proud of it. 

As an American, I simply ask to be afforded the rights and privileges of all other Americans, and the opportunity to make my mark on our society without the fear of negative repercussions.  I want my sons, and grandsons, and great grandsons to experience true freedom in America.  I ask that my daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughters be treated with dignity and respect and given the opportunity to achieve their inherent greatness.  They, too, are Americans -- born, raised and bred in this great Country of ours!

Peace and blessings always!