In the old days, when we were “Colored People,” or “Negroes,” we didn’t have nearly as much formal education as we have today, but when it came to the Democratic process (one person, one vote), of electing public officials, we were amazingly politically astute. Please hold on to that thought while I bring you up to speed, because I’m not about to assume that you are aware that a general election will be held on Nov. 5, 2002.

Now that you know, I don’t have to worry about making out of us what the first three letters of assume spells, as so many presumptuous people do. Perhaps I should also remind you that early voting will be ongoing until Nov. 1, therefore you still have a few days left to get ahead of the crowd. You can give yourself plenty of time to figure out how those new E-Slate voting gadgets work if you vote early.  If, however, you still fail to vote, it won’t be due to ignorance or lack of information. On second thought, ignorance could well be your reason for not voting, since people aren’t ignorant because they lack information.

People are ignorant because they ignore information that is available to them. We Must Understand, however, that the people we should be talking to aren’t likely to read newspapers.
In fact, it’s a safe bet that the ones who need this information the most, not only don’t seek it, but aren’t the least bit concerned about what’s happening in the world, nation, city, neighborhood or anywhere else outside their own homes. They are only concerned about their small circle of apathetic friends and neighbors that share the same brain dead disinterest as they do. Then again, the problem that our disinterested neighbors have, isn’t so much that they aren’t interested in anything but their own survival. The problem is that those of us who consider ourselves concerned citizens, aren’t interested enough in our disinterested neighbors to interest them in voting.

We Must Understand, issues like the HISD bond proposal aren’t very interesting to people who have no property, or school age kids in their immediate family, so it’s up to us to make a concerted effort to peak their interest in participating in the democratic process. Lest we forget, people have also lost interest in voting for a change that never seems to come.

And for this reason, it should be incumbent on each of us (interested in the democratic process, i.e., voting for the candidates and proposals of our choice), to become a committee of one to not only try to get our neighbors interested, but excited about voting. We Must Understand, going to the polls to vote against people and proposals that will negatively impact our lives and the lives of our future generations, is tantamount to Bush making a preemptive strike against Saddam Hussein.

On the other hand, we’re well aware that people, who have never been interested in the political process, might not know exactly who or what, to vote for. Consequently, AAN&I would be remiss, as African-Americans’ watcher on the wall and editorial voice, not to offer a few fail-safe suggestions on voting.

Unfortunately, politicians who want the Black vote aren’t as easy to identify today as they were back in the old days when we Colored folks voted in a bloc. We know our vote is wanted when they come into our communities to shake hands and kiss babies, just as they do across town.
In the old days, however, politicians courting the Black vote stopped by the publisher’s office (even before they stopped by the preachers’ organizations), to convince them that they deserved our community’s support. They hedged their bet by advertising in our newspapers.

They respected the fact that our editorials could either hurt or help them. But, more than that, they realized politics was a crapshoot; thus, a good gambler knows it’s best to cover all bets.
That’s why it was interesting that Parents & Teachers For Public Schools is spending advertising dollars with AAN&I, although we have pledged to fight the bond tooth and nail. We Must Understand, win or lose, that group is playing good politics. Or dare we say covering all bets?
They apparently realize that African-Americans are not a monolithic people, who share the same opinion about HISD’s bond proposal. Any political consultant would be downright stupid to ignore our 300,000 controlled circulation (that ideally reach 2 million readers in five major Texas cities and millions more on the Internet), simply because we oppose them. Black voters, who admittedly don’t know much about politics, can be assured that political consultants or candidates that ignore the Black media are either stupid or take the Black vote for granted.

Stupid is as stupid does aside, there is another more devious reason that some candidates won’t advertise in AAN&I’s Black perspective publication and economics, or even political differences have nada to do with it. We Must Understand, major corporations, greedy advertising agencies and devious political consultants are dedicated to keeping an uncompromising Black newspaper as weak as possible.

Especially when they have other Black media that allows political advertising dollars to checkmate their objectivity. Then too, they are gambling that political naive Black voters will vote for candidates they see on TV the most, or simply won’t vote at all if the weather turns bad. Believe it or not, many politicians gamble that Black voters won’t show. They are betting that many African-Americans fail to realize that when they fail to vote, they are actually voting for candidates and proposals that they would’ve voted against. I’m not saying that you should vote for politicians who demonstrate that they indeed want the Black vote by advertising in Black newspapers. Nevertheless, we will say that win, lose or draw, good politicians that know how to play the game, have sense enough to know elections are a crapshoot, therefore they cover all bets. And, while all politicians might not get our vote on Nov. 5, 2002, they certainly will have earned our respect.