At the Precipice, I March to the Polls. Every Vote Counts.

On March 13, I did something that I’ve done every year since I turned 21 and that’s a lot of years at this point. I marched to the polls. The difference was that this time, I had the company of many thousands of others.

Election Day is only three weeks away and we had a lot to march for. We rallied at Chicago’s Grant Park – many young and many of us veterans of decades of election days, mostly women but also men who are on our side, whites and people of color.

The marches and the rallies are important. They get us inspired to go vote, to make phone calls, to write letters, to do voter registration drives. The idea of this march was to get people psyched to go to the polls.

I marched for many reasons. I marched to be counted. I marched to serve notice that I won’t accept America's becoming a Fascist state. I marched to say that bigotry is never okay. I marched because we won’t allow this last-ditch effort by the current regime to turn back the clock on women’s rights to be successful. I marched because I don’t want the Affordable Care Act or any other parts of American’s fraying social safety net to be torn apart. I marched because I refuse to be silent.

I welcome the young women that spoke who are running for elected office for the first time and the high school and college students who spoke. I welcome all the new voters who were there and marched to the early voting sites, those who will vote on Election Day, those who will vote early in their cities and villages and those who will vote by absentee ballots.

Marching isn’t enough. With all the voter suppression going on, those of us who can vote must vote. It’s our only recourse left and we have to use it while we still have it. The march went from Grant Park to the Federal Plaza. From there it split off to two early voting sites, one for Chicago voters and one for those who live in the Cook County suburbs of Chicago. I hope that a lot of votes were cast on Saturday after the march was over.

As always in my adopted city of Chicago, I will vote early. I wish I could vote often but fortunately, even here that’s no longer allowed. So you all have to support me by voting, too.

We have to vote this time. We can’t have anyone sitting this Election Day out. Ninety million people failed to vote in 2016 and that has brought America to the precipice. There is too much at stake. Your vote matters. Every vote matters. VOTE!!

In Illinois, sites will be open in various places for early voting beginning on October 22^nd. If you don’t know where you can vote early, you can call your County Clerk’s office or the Board of Elections and ask.