Mustafa Santiago Ali
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Executive Vice President of Conservation & Justice for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), former Interim Chief of Programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and Instructor at American University. He is the Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He also serves as a commissioner for The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is an award-winning writer and poet focused on social justice. Dr. Ali is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, VICE, FUSE, BET, National Geographic, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black News Channel, Tavis Smiley Show, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others…
Editor's Note: This poem is the 41st in our Democracy and Hope Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events.
we vote not just because the ancestors sweat blood into the dirt, not just because they walked miles with chains clanking behind, not just because dogs & water hoses sang a different kind of blues on Sunday mornings— no, we vote because our babies deserve light, deserve books that don’t lie, deserve a future where the sky ain’t smog & the water ain’t poison, where a mother can bring life without fear of the grave.
we vote for the ones who clock in & clock out & clock in again, burning both ends to keep the fridge humming, who patch holes in their shoes with the gospel of tomorrow. we vote for the breathless, for lungs bound tight by water slicked in lead, by air that chokes before it kisses. for the sister who lost her name to a badge & a baton. for the brother who can’t sleep 'cause the night is full of flashing red, the wail of a siren a lullaby he never wanted to know.
we vote because choice is not a whisper, not a privilege but a right to hold your own flesh with love, to tell your story in the language of freedom & mean it. for bodies battered by laws made by men who never once bled on the bathroom floor, we vote.
we vote for the homeless, for the hungry, for the tired & the broken, for the ones who sing quiet hymns of hope at dawn, who hold out their hands to an empty sky & still say please. for every future yet to come, for every child whose laugh is a revolution, for every name that never made it to the ballot, we vote.
we vote because tomorrow is watching, & we want to make it proud.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poetry #voterregistration #ProudBlue #KamalaHarris #DemVoice1 #Resister