[GLC 3]

When you don't vote

The government of my little town of Hillside NJ had a council meeting yesterday on the school budget for next year. They had proposed a 1.5 million dollar cut when no town on our county had cut their budget by more than $400,000.

As I quickly learned the meeting was a damned joke because the town council and the board of education went into a closed session leaving the parents that showed up sitting in the auditorium for 45 minutes. They came out and without asking for any input from the parents the town council voted to cut the 1.5 million from the budget.

When they did let us talk the council president and I had a heated 10 minute exchange in which I asked where the money went he said he couldn't answer. I then asked him "How can you vote if you can't answer that question?"

But he said something that although I ignored it at the time was very true. He said, "What do you want me to do, the voters didn't pass the budget we have to make these cuts.

Turns out in a town with 12,000 predominantly black & hispanic regestired voters only about 1300 voted and many of those were elderly and didn't have children so of course they were against a tax hike to supplement the new bidget.

Our children or out 1.5 million and it's all because we didn't vote.

Dammit our right to vote is the one tool that can be used to our advantage and for us not to use it is just plain ignorant. Not using the power of the vote to make things better is why we as black people are in the mess we are now. Please whenever there is an election, even a municipal one please vote not doing so affects all of us