The Red Record | 
It only took us approximately 127 years from Ida B Wells‘s Red Record to actually passing an anti-lynching law. To paraphrase MLK Jr. ‘The arc of the moral universe is (indeed) long (and depressingly slow) , but it (eventually…give or take a century) bends toward justice.‘
We need to do better
ravenlee I will never understand how this wasn‘t a given…and yet, I understand it all too well. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @ravenlee Right! How is that not a given! But I remember them trying to pass this not long after Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, and it NOT Passing because ‘reasons‘🙄 3y
Suet624 💕💕💕 3y
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Bookwomble 🤯 - The lawmakers had other, more important, issues to deal with than racially-aggravated vigilante murder for the past 150 years? 🤷🏻♂️ 3y
TheBookHippie @ravenlee Exactly. 3y
Megabooks 💯💯💯 great but we need to do better. I‘d also like to see stronger voting rights laws. I cannot make my dad understand why everyone can‘t necessarily get a driver‘s license/ID but why it is still legal for them to vote. Sorry that came up yesterday around the table. We need to do better on behalf of our BIPOC Americans!! 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Megabooks yes! I‘ve had this discussion myself many times…that and mail in ballots. My friend in Massachusetts doesn‘t understand why everyone can‘t easily get a photo ID to vote, but I live in rural PA, where there is no public transportation and the nearest DMV is over an hour drive from where I live and is only open 1 day a week, on a week day. So every disabled or elderly person here would need to find someone willing to take the day ⤵️ 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️off of work and wait in line with them all day. We have a very high senior citizen population in my area, many of them women, who would also struggle to get the documentation they need to get an ID. Here you need your original birth certificate, proof of any name change in between, and utility bills sent to your current residence in your name. Many don‘t have access to that. Bills were always in their husbands or then children‘s name, ⤵️ (edited) 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Birth and marriage records long lost and impossible to just request when you were born at home, or the church that married you long closed and disappeared along with any records. But in a much smaller and more urban state like hers, there are many more DMV‘s much easier to get to, open more hours, records better kept and easier to get access to….. maybe they require less proof too 🤷♀️ (edited) 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa The problem always seems to be that everyone always assumes their life story and ability to access info is universal to everyone everywhere. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pennsylvania-voter-id-law-elderly_n_1934063/amp 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-01-2012/voter-id... 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Megabooks maybe some of that will help you to explain it to him.. AARP is probably still considered neutral in most circles (not lame stream media 🙄) 3y
Megabooks Yes, I live in a medium-sized town. Fortunately the DMV is open more often but is difficult to access if you‘re disabled, as all three in my family are. We also have the transport issues too although we do have a limited bus system for disabled people, but it covers 7 counties. Fortunately we as a family have access to our own accommodated vehicles but I‘m trying to convince dad that it is not true for everyone. I think everywhere has the Real ID 3y
Megabooks Issues now. Our backyard neighbor, who is 90, had to bring her marriage certificate to a husband that‘s been dead for 15 years. Fortunately she kept it. Just ridiculous! Thank you for the links!! 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Megabooks and she‘s lucky to still have it and be able to find it… if there has ever been a fire in the home (or in my area a historic fire at one of the county courthouses) those things can be very hard to replace, not to mention seniors who live in nursing homes and don‘t have any of their older personal items with them anymore or who might struggle to remember names and places to request documents…. What was the name of that lawyer who ⤵️ 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Represented you in that divorce 50 years ago. I can‘t even imagine. I‘m only 48 and was asked recently to list every address I‘ve ever lived at…. I honestly cannot recall the address the street addresses I lived at while in college, I could probably drive you there, but the house number on the street that I was at for 6 months in 1995-ish, nope. 3y
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