By Staff
It's fairly safe to say U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., isn't voting for Barack Obama in November.
Nor would he have supported Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House.
But Bonner, like many Americans, recognizes the tremendous barriers broken by both candidates in this unique election year - and pointed out that their success is yet another reminder of why we can't take our opportunity to vote for granted.
Bonner, speaking to Brewton area residents at a town hall meeting Monday, pointed out that Clinton's mother remembered when women couldn't vote. And Obama, he said, remembered a time when it would have been unimaginable for a black man to be a major candidate for president.
But times have, thankfully, changed. Our society has accepted the right of women and African-Americans to vote, however late we were in recognizing it.
Our right, though, is also a responsibility. We have just a few weeks before the municipal elections in Brewton and East Brewton, and just a few months before the November presidential election and the remaining county elections.
It is our duty as Americans to follow through on our most democratic ideals, and to vote in the upcoming elections.
Consider the hundreds of thousands of people - women, African-Americans, and often the poor - who were denied the right to vote either by law or by unfair practices.
Vote for them. Vote for yourself. Vote for the future.