A New Demon

Indifference or voter apathy has been a demon that has historically affected the American citizenry in general and the African American community in particular. The 2008 Presidential election however, thanks to war fatigue and an economy in shambles, the resultant subordination of past wedge issues, and a massive increase in new voters, has enabled this malaise to slip into apparent remission.

This curing of the disease of lukewarmness, rather than providing a total healing, has in the long lines of those waiting to cast their ballots a possible residual side effect. Early voters have waited as long as 8 hours in Georgia, 5 hours in Indiana, and have been reported to arrive at 4:30 AM to stand in line for doors that do not open until 8 AM in Oklahoma. These delays, whether voter suppression tactics or due to lack of available resources, will disproportionately affect the traditionally disenfranchised poor, working poor, and people of color who cannot afford the added expenses or lost wages of an entire day.

In this day before the biggest election in the history of the United States, our prayer should be as we vote, for God to inspire us to utilize our innate creativity and improvisational genius gifted to us through our survival instinct. But also and more importantly that the demon of impatience, which causes us to do more harm to ourselves than others can do, be exorcised from our hearts and minds.

A person's wisdom gives them patience; it is to their glory to overlook an offense. Proverb 19:11

If you patiently endure, you come out victorious. Twi Proverb

An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint. Booker T. Washington