Let’s start with 10 and go for the win!
Chicago’s African American community has representatives in every sector of government. We are represented in the city by our mayor, aldermen and ward committeemen. We are represented in Cook County by our county board president and commissioners. We are represented in Illinois by our senators, representatives and governor. We are represented in the federal government by our U.S. Senators and Congressmen. Each of these individuals are supposed to be accountable to us. They have been elected by us – either by casting our votes, or staying home and not voting – we caused them to be in office. Having been elected by us, they are supposed to be accountable to us. They are supposed to be visible in our communities. They are supposed to listen to our concerns and address them through their votes and legislation. But there’s something wrong with this picture:
- Why are they voting for unfair taxes to raise money that benefits other communities, but not ours?
- Why are they silent on matters of police brutality and harassment in our communities?
- Why do they vote on issues that negatively affect our communities without giving us a voice?
- Why are there so many food desserts in our neighborhoods?
- Why are our schools being closed?
- Why are they only visible in our communities when they are campaigning for our votes?
- Why aren’t they pushing for programs that will convert abandoned housing into low income housing for indigent citizens?
- Why aren’t there more senior and youth programs in our communities?
The answer to those questions and many others is because they are not being held accountable by those who they have been elected to serve.
The only way we can hold them accountable is by using the power of our votes.
Imagine if one million African Americans came together in unity and voted those who are not representing us fairly out of office.
Imagine if one million African Americans came together in unity and voted for candidates who represented our interest.
Then we could make demands of the politicians that are supposed to be representing us. And if they don’t comply with our demands, we could use the power of our vote to threaten to vote them out of office. And if they don’t comply, we could vote them out. We could vet, and groom and hand-pick candidates who will vote and legislate and work for the betterment of our communities to replace them.
Forming a voting bloc of concerned citizens is an achievable goal – and it all starts with 10 individuals. Ten individuals who will register to vote, who will become part of a voting bloc with mutual concerns, who will give $1 each to help fund the candidates we choose – and each of those 10 individuals will recruit 10 others – and each of those 10 will recruit 10 more – and if we do this only five times over, we will have one million involved voters voting on one accord.
When people come together in unity, there is no limit to what they can accomplish.
10 by 10 to win means hope for our communities.
10 by 10 to win means having the power to make our politicians accountable to us.
10 by 10 to win is the power we can exercise to guarantee that our politicians will hear our voices and begin to heed our demands.
10 by 10 to win is the only way we can bring real change to our communities.
10 by 10 to win means each one, reach one – and then, get 10.