Giving thanks for free and fair elections

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, there is a great deal for which we can be thankful. One is that our democracy, as imperfect as it is, survived during these midterm elections.

As they say, this will be one for the history books.

During this election we witnessed the election of Maryland’s first African American governor and attorney general. We saw a woman elected for the first time to the office of state comptroller.

Voters overwhelmingly supported the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Maryland. They increased term limits for the Anne Arundel County Council to three terms and renamed the Court of Appeals the Supreme Court of Maryland.

Yet something else happened that I want to share with readers. Elizamae Robinson, 90, saw in the Democratic candidate for governor, Wes Moore, a man who was destined to make history.

Mrs. Robinson, who helped to organize one of the longest rent strikes in Anne Arundel County in the 1970s and was a plaintiff in a voting rights case against the city of Annapolis in 1984, understood the power of the vote.

After all, it was because of her lawsuit that the city of Annapolis increased the number of majority African American wards, which led to an increase in the number of African Americans serving on the City Council.

She understood that voting is never about candidates; it is always a referendum on the future. When someone casts a ballot, they are really investing in the hopes and dreams of generations yet unborn.

Voters like Mrs. Robinson know that elections are never a panacea to the problems we face, but they are an investment in making America better and not bitter.

While attending a meeting of the

Caucus of African American Leaders she met Wes Moore. His smile, intelligence and charisma won her over.

She wrote a poem and gave it to him at the meeting. He graciously thanked her. He had no idea who she was. He had no way of knowing that he represented for her a prayer come true.

Mrs. Robinson, a history maker in her own right, has a building named after her in a community called Wilburn Estates off Forest Drive. Following Moore’s election, she wrote another poem.

I leave you with that poem, entitled, “It’s About Time.”

It’s About Time

Wes, you made it as governor of Maryland, this great state.

And the people’s vote determined that fate.

Heartfelt congratulations, the people knew you were the man,

To take control and govern Maryland. This is your time and Maryland’s too To bring everyone along and not just a few.

And although you are the chosen son This was not on your own, It was God’s will that you won.

So, govern honestly and faithfully in order not to fail,

And always keep God with you and you will prevail

On Thanksgiving Day, there will be a lot of families giving thanks for their blessings. I too will be giving thanks. I will thank God and the voters who allowed an election to be held in America free of strife and allowed a senior citizen to be so inspired that she wrote a poem.

Somewhere in the heavens is a woman named Fannie Lou Hamer, the voting and women’s rights activist, who is talking with Harriett Tubman. They are both proclaiming their thanks for men and women who, when their nation needed them most, spoke and voted.