By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher
This election season should be a wake-up call for African Americans in more ways than one. That call should be felt at the national, state and local levels. While voter suppression is the order of the day in the South, it appears to be unnecessary here in the West because of the number of us who are such rugged individuals that we miss the importance of a collective front on social, personal and religious issues. The whole idea of state ballot Propositions is a good place to start.
Consider Proposition 23, which this newspaper endorses. On the one hand, the Proposition would improve the level of healthcare for those persons on dialysis requiring doctors onsite, state oversight of clinics in terms of operational cost and data collection on infections as well as permission to close a facility. If you are a member of the community not on dialysis, this sounds like a major improvement of health services in this area. However, if you are a user of such clinical services, the proposition is not such a good idea.
The point of this discussion is that one must make political decisions; like which proposition to support based on the issue at hand, and the personal impact of your vote if you can determine it. In the South, the Black community has a rich history of the “good of the many, out weighting the wants of the few.” The Civil Rights movement, the Voting Rights sacrifices, were all made to help the race as a whole. That was possible because segregation reminded everyone that they were Black first and anything else second.
It is not too late for those of us here in the West to develop the same concerns for each other so that “we” becomes more important than “me,” because “we” are the ones under attack, as subtle as it might seem. We must reach out to each other just as the Latino community has done using our “playbook” from the Civil Rights movement. The Latino community has a “Public Public Policy” position on a number of issues including immigration, public health, education, jobs and housing. It’s time we revisit our own “playbook”: reexamine our personal needs in terms of the collective and cast our votes where they will do the most good. Something to think about both now and in the future if you have already voted.
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