By Bobby R. Henry, Sr
Texas Metro News
https://texasmetronews.com
Black Americans lived through Jim Crow and fought to make the ballot a right. Today, barriers can be harder to recognize: a polling place moves, a registration requirement changes, or a voter learns too late that the rules are different. Voting laws have changed in recent years, and polling locations can change between elections.
At the same time, artificial intelligence is moving into our workplaces and daily lives while access to digital tools remains unequal. Who will have the training and power to shape its future?
Greed and political ambition thrive when we stop asking hard questions. A candidate who looks like us may make history, but appearance cannot tell us whose interests that candidate will serve. Examine the record. Follow the money. Listen to the policies.
Then vote.
Even if you feel no candidate speaks for you, think of someone who needs a voice: a child whose school is underfunded, an elder who depends on care, a neighbor whose polling place has moved. Don’t forget your relative who’s in prison you can vote. Your ballot reaches beyond your own life.
We did not come this far to let confusion, disappointment, a political leader who is out of touch with reality or an outward apperance make our decisions for us. Check their records. Know the candidates. Cast your vote.
Bobby Henry, Sr. is the publisher of the Westside Gazette and chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association-NNPA
