Good Trouble

Representative John Lewis' death has opened my eyes again. He was 80 years old when he passed, this July from pancreatic cancer. Now, numbers and timelines are going through my head because my grandparents are 87 and well. John Lewis was 25 when he lead protestors across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. It is so awe-inspiring to know when I [at 24] am out in the streets fighting oppression and prejudice, my grandmother and John Lewis were doing the same.

I'm also angry because I'm fighting the same fight my 87 year old grandma fought! Had it not been for cancer or a bullet, John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. would still be sharing their truths for probably another decade. Don't wait for our warriors to die before you listen to them. Lewis had his skull fractured for Black people to vote freely.

Use that as motivation to go vote this 2020 election. It is literally life or death and it's the, "most powerful non-violent tool we have"[John Lewis]. Recognize your privilege to vote and your privilege to not vote. Those who choose not to care enough about politics to vote, can do so because the election result will never effect them. Everyone has a responsibility to fight for the oppressed, get into "good trouble".

John Lewis once said,

"Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part."