While in Memphis. . .

So Saturday we took a field trip to Memphis, TN; visited the civil rights museum and rock and blues museum, ate some barbeque too (beef briskett was banging, though the side dishes were horrendous).

Who would have thought, 41 years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death we would have a black president (I know "African American" may be more PC but I have issues with the term so I say black). During the Civil Rights Movement, black organizations rallied, protested, striked, marched, and boycotted for various causes such as desegregation, workers' rights, the right to vote, and other important liberties denied to blacks and other people of color. Walking through the gallery of the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis reminded me of the struggles those before me endured so that I may have these rights. In the display about voting, there was a wheel and dozens of sentences that determined your voting eligibility. This wheel represented the slim chances blacks had of being allowed to register to vote. When the wheel finally stopped after I gave it a spin, it said that I needed to try again next month because there weren't enough workers present to handle my registration. Upon seeing this, along with the other documents and pictures pertaining to black voting rights, I couldn't help but think about this past election of 2008.

Our predecessors fought tirelessly so we could have the right to vote and when we finally got it, few people exercised that right. There was a big campaign from the Democrats and Obama supporters to get out and register people to vote. I know of at least three people from my school who were so dedicated to the cause that they took a semester off to continue work to register people to vote and get them to the polls. Why must we fight the same fight that our predecessors fought 40 plus years ago? They did this so that we wouldn't have to yet here we find ourselves, 50yrs later doing the same work that SNCC, SCLC, NAACP, and similar groups did. A record amount of young people voted in this past election which is an amazing thing. I just wish we would appreciate the things that we take for granted. You sit on your couch and don't want to go to the polls because you're tired or you know the lines will be long, or whatever lame excuse you manage to come up with; meanwhile people lost thier lives to make it possible for you to stand on that line.

We should not be fighting the same fight that was fought 50 years ago.