One of the most gerrymandered state Senate districts in Mississippi, which meanders 102 miles through the Delta region, violates the Voting Rights Act, a federal judge has ruled. The district connects just enough voters in wealthy, white and Republican areas to the north and south to assure the election of a GOP legislator even though the bulk of the territory is overwhelmingly African-American and Democratic.
Three black voters have sued with the help of the Mississippi Center for Justice, and this week U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered the Legislature to redraw the boundaries before statewide elections this fall. (The job will be made a bit easier for the legislators because the incumbent state senator, Buck Clarke, is running for state treasurer instead of re-election.)
What Is It To You?
As part of a collaboration between The Fulcrum's NextGen initiative and Made By Us, The Fulcrum is publishing Letters to America, a series created through the Youth250 project that invites Gen Z to reflect on the nation’s past, present, and future as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary.
Dear America,
Oftentimes, we find ourselves at the crossroads of me or we. This presents the age-old question that has been asked countless times: What is it to you?
It is indisputable that, as a result of the pandemic, we have become more individualistic as a society. We should be a country where there are different understandings, but a shared identity of compassion and acceptance of differences. While the age-old question is individualistic, perhaps we can extend it to be collective.
What is it to you when your neighbor is hurting and suffering under the weight of life? What is it to you when the government implicates civil rights and freedoms, irrespective of political party? What is it to you when policies negatively impact the least among us?
As we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, let us look back as we look forward. It is only when we ask questions in the collective on how we act as human beings and how the government asserts power that we rise to be the shining city on the hill.
The following is my request: check on one another, even amid troubling times across multiple areas of society. Together, we can overcome our own weaknesses, character flaws, and blind spots, so that the sun may never stop shining over our nation, our country, and our home.
Carlos David Gamez, 23, Lakeland, FL