Dear fellow Ohioans:
In a 1967 address, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. noted,
Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change.”
This month we celebrate Dr. King’s birthday and remember him as one of the 20th century’s greatest architects of American civil rights. Dr. King understood that power begins with equal and full voting rights. Voting is one way to empower us, as Mahatma Gandhi said, to be the change we want to see. Voting is the ultimate expression of nonviolent protest, expressed by Dr. King as:
1. Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
2. Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
3. Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
4. Nonviolence holds that suffering for a cause can educate and transform.
5. Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
6. Nonviolence holds that the universe is on the side of justice and that right will eventually prevail.
The Voting Rights Institute (VRI) in the Ohio Secretary of State’s office is devoted to enfranchising all eligible Ohioans and protecting their voting rights. Ohio’s VRI offers guidance to individuals, committees, nonprofit and faith-based organizations and others to fully engage their constituencies to exercise their rights to vote without barriers.
With the 2010 primary election approaching on May 4th we can honor Dr. King’s legacy by empowering our constituencies to participate in democracy. If you or someone you know is not currently registered to vote, there is still time to register by the April 5th deadline. To find out how, please visit our Web site: http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/voter/RegisteringToVote.aspx
As you think of Dr. King during this day of commemoration and throughout the year, please pay tribute to his life and principles by using your voice in the way he helped make possible for so many—please vote.
Jennifer Brunner
Ohio Secretary of State
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