Week in Review 11/2/2018

Miriam Webster defines democracy as: "a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections."

Tuesday, we have the privilege to vote and to directly participate in our democracy. As citizens, we have a say in our government. We can choose the people we want to guide our country. These people, the senators and representatives, work for us.

Every U.S. citizen is guaranteed the right to vote, regardless of their race, religion, income, gender, or sexual orientation. But that right did not come easy. Women weren't allowed to vote until 1920. African Americans, after the violence sparked by those opposed to the civil rights movement, were finally granted the protected right to vote in 1965.

On the eve of one of the most important midterm elections in history, efforts are underway across the country to keep people from voting. This is a GOP-organized effort with racial undertones to suppress the vote of minorities who most likely would choose the Democratic candidate.

In Georgia, voter suppression may effect more than 50,000 people, 70 percent of them African Americans. In North Dakota, the state's Repubican-dominated legislature passed a new law that seems specifically intended to make it harder for Native Americans to vote.

Voting has always been extremely important to the Jewish community. The U.S. was the first country in the world to offer Jews full rights, including the right to vote.

Each of us has a special memory about the first time we voted. On Tuesday, let's make new memories and history. We need to make sure everyone eligible to vote gets to the polls. That is your responsibility just as much as voting. Don't let anyone you know sit home.

Vote for your self. Vote for your children. Vote for all those that never had the freedom to do so.

#ElectionsMatter