Your Vote, Our Answer and Our Future

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher

The San Diego Voice and Viewpoint

Dr. John E. Warren

Next week, a great deal of America will experience Super Tuesday. This is the day of mass Presidential Primaries in multiple states. California is a participant as we will have the opportunity to elect a new United States Senator, new Members to the State Senate as well as the State Assembly. Here in San Diego, we will have additional opportunities on the ballot from City Council members to Judges; to City Attorney and new members of the San Diego City Council as well as candidates in other cities in the County.

While California is a predominantly “Blue State” meaning Democratic, there are Republicans both in office and seeking office. How we vote or fail to vote as a State can be a shift in the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. The control of the United States Senate also hangs in the balance as the political parties seek to put their “best” candidates forward toward the November General Election. That election will determine who the President of the United States will be for the next four years. Those candidates who win the primary ballots and make it to the General Election will be on the same ballot in November as our presidential candidates.

Believe it or not, you are a part of this drama. Your vote or your failure to vote will determine the outcome of next Tuesday’s elections here in our cities, counties and state offices. Please know that you don’t have to vote and that there are people who not only hope you don’t vote, but are counting on the fact that for a variety of reasons, you will not vote.

This means that if you don’t vote, please don’t bother to complain about such things as high rents, gas prices, food bills and low wages. Your no vote would have put in office those people who will be giving you all of the above things you think are really bad now, but will be so much worse in the future with our new office holders.

As Black people let us remember there was a time when it was against the law to teach us to read or write; let us remember that there was a time when one had to pay what was called a “poll tax” to vote or if we were black and showed up to vote, we had to guess at the number of Jelly Beans in a jar; we were often fired from meaning less jobs for trying to vote when no other jobs were available to us.

With all the choices on the ballot for tuesday, if you live in the Fourth City Council District of the City of San Diego, This newspaper is asking that you vote CHIDA WARREN DARBY as the next city council member and that your vote for her and those you select, will be your vote and not that of a slate put together by some political group that has hand selected those candidates that they think will do their bidding in office instead of our bidding as citizen and resident. All these add up to where we started: Your Vote, Our Answer, and Our Future.