OMAHA PERFORMING ARTS
Voting as it relates to social justice
Election Day is November 3, 2020. Your mail is probably overflowing with political materials. Your radio and televisions might be getting tiresome, and it’s all coming to fruition as we are now only days away from the 2020 Presidential election.
O-pa’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) committee put together a timeline of political quotes as they relate to social justice to remind us why voting is crucial to the history and future of the American people.
“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”
-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
On the issue of Race Relations
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.” -President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1972
On the issue of LGBTQ+ Rights
“The court today not only overlooks our country’s entire history and tradition but actively repudiates it, preferring to live only in the heady days of the here and now.”
-Chief Justice John Roberts, 2015
On the issue of Education
“…achieving inclusive education for all starts with the belief that it is not only a universal right but also possible if we all take shared responsibility.”
-Forbes Business Development Council, 2020
IDEA Committee member and O-pa’s Performance Booking Manager, Elly Whaley shared why working the polls on election day is important to her.
“My grandmother and my mother worked the polls for many years, and I follow in their footsteps to support an open and fair election process. I feel that voting is the most important right that we have in this country. The people in power at all levels, from your local school board to the President of the United States, were put in place by us, and they represent us. You and I can’t change laws, so we have to vote people into power to make change happen. Working the polls leaves me proud and hopeful. Watching voters walk through the doors, from 18-year-olds voting for the first time to grandparents who have been voting for 50 years, it is empowering to see democracy at work.”
To learn more about your voting rights visit: https://www.vote.org
See you at the polls!