November 3, 2024

I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.

I get to vote, because of hundreds of pieces of paper painstakingly filled in (except for the ones that must be intentionally left blank); and thousand of hours of waiting in airport special rooms and embassy queues and the deadening limbo that is application received, no status updates; and tens of thousands of dollars spent on a half dozen lawyers, some much better than others.

I get to vote because long before me people fought and bled and died for the right to cast a ballot while not a white landowning man.

I get to vote because today, right now, people are still fighting to ensure voter rolls don’t get arbitrarily purged; that your rights get upheld regardless of your views on who else gets to the opportunity to have them.

I get to vote, so I voted.

Attribution

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
            Freedom
            Is a strong seed
            Planted
            In a great need.
            I live here, too.
            I want my freedom
            Just as you.   
— from Freedom by Langston Hughes