Blog for Choice – woman + vote = power…

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

In case you missed it, this is an election year in America (wink).

So, what am I going to do to elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?

Well…

I’m going to work as if my rights are on the line.

That means I knock on one more door, I make that extra phone call, I nag my friends and family members to make sure their asses are registered and know where their polling place is…I volunteer, even though I’m tired…I stuff envelopes, even though I’d rather be [insert any of the many things I set aside during an election year].

I’m going to teach…

…and educate my community about reproductive justice and that there are people who appropriate the language and tactics of the Civil Rights movement so that they can erect anti-choice versions of the White Citizens Council and bar black women from the full range of reproductive health care.

I’ll be educating my sisters and brothers on the vote, why they should vote, and how many people who claim to care about the souls of black folk are in reality allied with forces that would deny the black vote by any means necessary…people who gleefully disparage black women even as they claim ownership, like the plantation masters of old, over our wombs, our bodies…and, should we fail to be vigilant, eventually our selves.

I’ll be resisting…

…any and all attempts to define, examine, objectify, indict, blame, shame, mock, exploit, and control me.

And I will be voting.

Because elections matter.

Because the most dangerous place for my rights is in the hands of my oppressor.

And because woman + vote = power.