June will be the first time in several years we have had a full Board of Directors with all positions filled and I am so grateful to the special group of women who have stepped up to ensure that our local League continues to succeed. Thank you to each of you. 

Looking forward, I think we are all aware of the doom and gloom about the state of our democracy and our political situation swirling around as we head into the fall elections. The best defense to this despair is our League work- empowering voters to keep our democracy strong.  I urge any of you that can to volunteer to Get Out The Vote at one of our ongoing events.  We’ll be continuing our GOTV tables at the libraries and Das Rec several times a month throughout the summer, we’ll be at New Braunfels Pridefest June 8 and at Juneteenth at the Westside Community Center June 15. More events will be added as we get closer to the fall election. Keep an eye on the website calendar, then  log in to see the details and the list of volunteering opportunities. 

Last week when I was at Mammen Library doing a get Out the vote shift, a woman stopped to thank me for what the League does.  She said she moved to Texas a few years ago and would have been lost without the  information the League provides.  Her previous state always mailed out notices about elections and what was on the ballot, now she checks for our flyers at the library and has VOTE411 bookmarked on her computer to be sure she does not miss a vote.  I get phone calls and emails every election asking when the Voter Guide or VOTE411 will be available and thanking me for what the League does.  Just as every vote matters, what we do matters.

In March, NYT opinion columnist Mara Gay wrote about Beverly Gadson-Birch, a community activist in South Carolina and asked why she was not bereft witnessing efforts that threaten to undermine decades of struggle for basic civil rights.  Ms. Gadson Birch replied “My great-grandmother, they told her to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap to vote, When we think we’re making progress, we start going back, because they keep putting hurdles in the way. You expect that. But one inch at a time, we’ll get there. I know it’s depressing for a lot of people. They say: ‘My vote is not going to matter. The politicians still do what they want to do, But I tell them, ‘They’re going to continue to do it if you don’t make a change.’  The way to win according to Gadson-Birch: "Ignore the long odds and keep organizing, protesting and voting anyway."