Tuesday night upset many of us. Some of us were not surprised at all.
For those of us living on the margins, Tuesday night was the final confirming move of a growing conservative political strategy which has declared an all out assault on the lives of marginalized people throughout this country.
Those of us living and working in the South are all too familiar with our votes being ignored, whether by faulty voting machines, unnecessary voter I.D. policies, or elected officials who eagerly support legislation which directly impacts vulnerable voters. We saw that despite our best efforts to vote as individuals and GOTV among our communities, an electoral college hellbent on tri-partisan control ignored our votes and secured the White House for a candidate whose
first 100 days place our lives in danger locally, nationally and internationally.
This makes our work at SisterReach just that much harder, but not impossible. For 3 months leading up to the election, the SisterReach canvassing team was in marginalized communities all over Memphis talking to residents about what was most important to them. Most of you shared with us the need for employment, young people needing comprehensive sexuality education in school, families needing unhindered access to healthcare and women needing access to the full range of reproductive healthcare services, including abortion. Other issues like mental health services, voter restoration services and crime management were also important issues raised during these conversations.
We heard you and now we need your help more than ever to continue our work together.
Election night showed us two sure things. No one is going to give us anything and the poor and marginalized in this country are an afterthought to our elected officials. If we want change in our communities, then we are responsible for changing the conditions of our own lives.
In the coming weeks, SisterReach will be calling on you to
get involved in this movement to achieve Reproductive Justice for every Tennessean who finds themselves on the wrong end of this election. For now, you can support this important work by becoming a
Sustaining Partner and if you already are, then we ask that you consider increasing your support today.
Before Tuesday, we were responsible for our own lives. Nothing there has changed. Come January 1, we will still be responsible for achieving our human rights. We look forward to working alongside you and together, we
will win.
"We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated"
Maya Angelou
