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I Need You to Put Your Foot Down

by Katherine Calaway

I probably won’t tell you anything you don’t already know, but I need you to keep reading. I need you to keep reading because I need you to do something for me: put your foot down. I need you to stomp it hard and scream at the top of your lungs while you’re doing it.

It’s time to re-brand Texas. Last in the nation? Yep, that’s us. We’re terrible voters…worse than any other state in fact. And because we’re terrible voters, we end up with elected officials who do things like play doctor without a MD or teacher without ever making a course syllabus.

Except it’s not kindergarten dress up party kind of play. It’s serious stuff. It’s stuff like rolling back women’s rights to the pre-Roe v. Wade era. It’s stuff like firing thousands of teachers and making our classrooms pop at the seams. It’s stuff like creating “poll taxes” to keep minorities out of the voting booth. It’s stuff like vetoing equal pay for equal work. It’s stuff like sending our tax dollars to other states’ healthcare systems instead of our own. I mean seriously…are they for real? The joke’s on us though because we aren’t doing our job either.

It’s time to shake things up around here. So on election day, take a friend to the voting booth. Or convince an apathetic stranger who prefers to sit the election out to take a stand. They’ll feel better; you’ll feel better; and our state will feel better. Advertise early voting on your car window with colorful liquid chalk. Make a crafty “Rock the vote” t-shirt and sport it around town. Drive yourself on over to an early voting site and take action. Whatever you choose to do – I hope you’ll put your foot down and make some noise!

by Guest Author