Dear Colleagues,
For those of you who heard my remarks during the SDCCD convocations today, I apologize for the redundancy. But for those who didn’t, here is a portion in brief:
As part of our commitment to dismantling the systemic racism we live within, we are now urging everyone to start putting your newfound knowledge and awareness into concrete action steps so that this moment continues as a movement and we do everything we can to make progress in the part of the world we have control over.
Here is the challenge: For the next seven days, every single student you have contact with, ask them this one question “Are you registered to vote?” That’s easy, right? Everyone can do it.
“What good will it do?” you ask. To quote the late congressman John Lewis from his last speech which he wrote just before he passed away last month: “Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”
This is an easy ask for each you. By being persistent and intentional with this one action for the next seven days, it will help you understand and model the behavior that is so necessary if we are going to make change happen. It’s how we organized the union into the force it it now, it’s how we win elections, and it’s how we win good contracts. Persistent and intentional. We all can do it if we choose to.
If the students you encounter are not yet registered to vote, here is the website you can send them to: registertovote.ca.gov Please choose the vote-by-mail option. (Yes, it’s OK to put this in your syllabi, include it in your signature block in your email, etc.)
Together, we can do this.
In Solidarity,
Jim