While the mainstream media is all in a tizzy over what John McCain may or may not have done (Do you have pictures? Video? A stained dress?) with a lobbyist, I came across some real news over on Black America Web:
Wow. And then, to get even better, I was visiting some new blogs, stopped by ReadingWritingLiving and came across some video of them marching."Over 2,000 March at Prairie View, a Reminder of Young Voters’ Engagement in ‘08 Election
A huge banner carried Tuesday by Prairie View A&M University students at the head of a march to the Waller County Courthouse said it all: “It’s 2008. We will vote.”
The Prairie View students, hundreds of them, waited for hours in line to vote after walking seven miles from campus to the county seat. Students say they wanted to protest changes the county recently made in early polling locations and show officials the impact of their political participation.
The unofficial crowd estimate was 2,200, said Prairie View Student Government Association President Andre Evans. He said about 3,000 Prairie view students in total are registered to vote.
Waller County had reduced the number of early voting locations from about six around the county to only one at its courthouse because county officials said they could not afford to operate multiple early voting locations.
After getting pressure from federal government, the county added three early voting locations, still there was not one announced for the Prairie View campus, convenient to students. An early voting site will be open this weekend at a community center in Prairie View.
The activism demonstrated by the Prairie View students is yet another example of trends observers across the country are noting as more people between the ages of 18 and 30 register to vote and take roles in political campaigns."
I had tears streaming down my face watching this. Hey, New York Times, MSNBC and CNN, this is real news. Fox News, why don't you have Bill O'Reilly talk about how students at a historically black college are standing up to the voting discrimination that's persisted for years? It must be easier to have him talk about he doesn't, "want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence."
Yes, these students marched 7.3 miles to vote. This is not a passive generation that's coming up and I'm so happy to see them claiming what's rightfully theirs, by any means necessary.
