Today we launch our documentary, Engage Her: Getting minority women to lead and vote and our new online organization, www.engageher.org to the national media, ethnic media and to our partners & organizations. With over 30+ million minority women in the U.S. who are eligible to vote, we can make a big and profound impact on our November elections. More importantly when you multiply our influence on our families, communities and social networks, to go out and vote, we have a huge part to play in choosing our next President. Even more important is all the excitement and feedback we’re getting from women regardless of their racial or ethnic background who want to join us. They’re saying that our key messages and focus on the issues we universally care about is what we all should focus on when we vote. Together, we will pick the next President of the United States.

Our key messages:

1. Focus on the issues: Education, Health, Economy, Environment, Social Justice

2. Demand accountability from the elected legislators for the past 8 years and moving forward

3. You can Vote for just the President, member of Congress and Senate and skip the rest of the ballot

4. Use the absentee ballot so you don’t have to worry about childcare, getting to the polls, etc.

Our documentary tells the stories of minority women and the reasons why they don’t vote. It also has messages from people telling us why it is so important that we have to vote. Don’t listen to the media that focuses on trivial affairs and personality issues. The mainstream media have turned the election of the U.S. President into an “American Idol” exercise of who’s most popular for the day. No! We need to have the voters concentrate on the hard issues that impact our daily lives. We want to elect leaders who will deal head on with the most important issues to our families, communities and our country.

We want them to lay out plans for fixing our “No Child Left Behind” education system that is failing to prepare our children to be competitive globally. We need to provide affordable health care for everyone in the U.S. and to find reasonable ways to pay for it. We want answers and plans to increase jobs for everyone in the U.S. so we can create a healthier economy and put money back into our pockets. We need leaders who will fix the problem of escalating food, gas and living prices. We can’t afford gas at $4 a gallon, $3 for a loaf of bread and $300 heating bills. We need leaders who will deal with the environmental issues that are polluting our planet, putting harmful toxins into our food system and making our bodies sick. Our leaders have to deal with issues like reproductive rights, immigration, incarceration of our community members and youth.

We can’t count on the media to report on these issues. We have to educate, activate and inform each other of these important issues. We can do that by going to sites that talk about the issues we care about, meeting with each other to inform ourselves of the candidates real positions and track records. Traditional media just isn’t doing their job for us. They’re focused on the wrong issues and aren’t covering our issues.

There are more women in the U.S. and we turn out in higher percentages to vote than men. The media doesn’t cover that fact and we’re invisible to the media. Historically, the candidates ask for our votes, make promises they don’t keep and then disappear for four more years.

No more we say! We’re here, we’re a huge population and we demand accountability. Remember, if you don’t show up for a job….you get fired. We are the bosses! If we don’t like the job that the President, Congressional Rep or Senator has done for us….we fire them by not voting for them. As the boss, we hire the people for the job we want them to do….President, Congressional Rep, Senator. Voting is your power to hire and fire the politicians. Get it? Now tell all your friends, families and networks to see our documentary, join us, comment our our blogs, send us your ideas and stories. Engage Her is a meeting of the minds and a place to activate ourselves. Join us and let’s hire our next President of the United States!

Mable

This blog is cross posted from the EngageHer blog.