The latter came with considerable responsibility, but was incredibly rewarding. I loved seeing new and familiar faces come in to vote, and enjoyed the feeling of hope fostered by the volunteers and voters. It was clear that work did not stop at the primaries. I had learnt that DA members could run to become delegates at the National Convention, representing the voices of Democrats Abroad at the Party convention.
I put myself forward as a candidate with no expectations; I thought it would just be a nice opportunity to share my views and allow myself to contribute to the election effort. The day of the delegate election, after overcoming my nerves to deliver not one but three speeches; the results came in — I was elected!
It felt surreal, and a huge honor to represent Democrats Abroad. I am now preparing for the Democratic National Convention. I thought I would be packing my bags to go to Milwaukee, but instead I am going to be part of the first online convention! I am also working hard to ensure that on November 4th, the day after the election, I will feel that I'll have done my utmost to ensure a blue White House and Congress. There is lots of work to do before then.
There are around 6.
We are the original absentee ballot voters and our votes are at risk. We must be alert and ensure ballots are received and returned on time. And we need to spread the word, so if you know Americans abroad who have not yet registered to vote please encourage them to do so at: www. We must make Joe Biden our 46 th President!
Be sure to request that your election materials be sent to you electronically, NOT by postal mail.
Navigation menu
Last month you heard from one of our first-time voters, year old but 18 by Election Day! Miles Herszenhorn, who wrote a tribute to Congressman John Lewis. This month, DAB Chair, Pauline Manos, shares the story of Lida Francombe, likely our oldest voter and an inspiration to all of us to do our best this summer to get out the vote. We hope she will inspire you, too. Lida Francombe was born 97 years ago in what is today the Czech Republic.
After World War II, she met a young Englishman while at university and they married, leaving Prague just before the borders closed. So we quickly flew to London. The morning after we arrived, I read in the newspapers that 30 Czech brides were blocked from leaving Prague - I was one of the lucky ones. After a few years in the UK, Lida and her husband emigrated to Pittsburgh, where she began to teach gymnastics and give Russian lessons.
Forty years later, now as US citizens, they moved back to Europe, settling in Belgium near their daughter. I shall send it today. Thanks for the offer. Go Hillary! Nearly four years later, Lida was even more determined to vote and she reached out again this spring, writing to our Vice-Chair, Jeffrey Edison. I was a bit hesitant but she insisted, so I donned my mask and finally had the honor of meeting from a distance! It was then that I learned her story and she asked me mine. I told her of my own journey to Europe, about my work with DA, and of our volunteers' occasional difficulty to convince some people to vote.
Are they crazy? They want Trump as President?? That morning, we talked of so many things - the challenges Covid had brought to families spread across continents, our shared conviction that we needed to get Joe Biden and his team into the White House, her tips for healthy living floor exercises every morning on her gorgeous carpet!
3. Maspalomas
I finally had to leave, so Lida signed her FPCA, we took a picture of it and emailed it to her Local Election Official, and then decided to walk together to the post office to send in the signed copy, just to be on the safe side. She got her shopping basket, adjusted her mask, and suddenly bent over to adjust her shoe strap…touching her toes at 97!
I left Lida outside her post office, determined to keep up my yoga so that I, too, could touch my toes in my 90s and keep making my own voice heard. This essay, commemorating the life of civil rights icon, John Lewis, who passed away on July 18th, is written by Miles Herszenhorn, DAB's summer intern. Miles will vote for the first time this fall, just after turning In , Miles organized the Brussels March for our Lives event to protest gun violence and the impact on young people.
Asmir Begović - Wikipedia
Yes, John Lewis was an American hero. But John Lewis was actually so much more than that. He was the greatest American to ever live. John Lewis started to participate in the Civil Rights Movement when he was still a college student. While he practiced non-violence as one of the 13 original Freedom Riders, he was brutalized and arrested in states across the country by white supremacists and the police. However, Rep. John Lewis never gave up.
He pressed on determined to achieve change and make a difference. In , while marching from Selma to Montgomery as part of a movement to register Black voters, Alabama State Troopers beat up praying protestors and fractured Rep. The abuse Lewis faced as a Black American fighting for equal rights in this country was constant. But, Rep. He never gave up fighting for what he believed in. He never gave up fighting for the United States of America.
In fact, not only did Lewis not give up on the United States of America, he served the country for over 33 years as a member of Congress. The same country that beat up and arrested Rep. Lewis in multiple states, the same country that more than once left him for dead bleeding when he tried to peacefully protest, that same country is the one he dedicated his life to serving. Lewis was arrested 40 times during the Civil Rights Movement and another 5 times while he was a sitting Congressman. John Lewis loved this country.
John Lewis fought for the soul of this country. John Lewis lived for this country and John Lewis died for this country. We will never be able to thank him enough for everything that he has done, but we must do our best to honor his memory. Let us fight for what is right and get into a whole lot of good trouble. Statues are incarnations of those we choose to honor in our public spaces.
They are also testaments to how art breathes life into history. Defacing and toppling statues from their pedestals is one form of protest. Unpacking history and learning from it is another. A handful of cities have tried to do this quiet yet vital work. Bordeaux, France, for instance, has put up plaques that explain exactly how the slave trade enabled the city to erect its beautiful buildings.
Best Hotels Near Crea'City, Mons, Belgium
He and others lead city tours that reveal history hiding in plain sight. Thanks to their long-term efforts, that work coming hand-in-hand with protests and demonstrations, now street names are being changed in Bordeaux.
Included in the tour is a statue of Modeste Testas, created by the Haitian sculptor Caymitte Woodly, who recently sculpted a bust of George Floyd. Modeste was an African woman who survived abduction at the age of 14, deportation from her homeland, then slavery and sexual exploitation for decades in Bordeaux and Haiti.
When the man who owned her and for whom she bore children died, she was finally freed. Modeste lived to be over years old, and she died in Haiti, the only country in the world borne from a revolution of the enslaved. A statue like this is a rarity. Why is this so? Amnesia and injustice go hand in hand. It is much easier to ignore history or avenge it , than to look it squarely in the face.
This year, in the wake of our global reckoning with racism, our Independence Day should also be a day for reflecting on all people of African descent who fought for their right to be free from slavery and oppression, and who have been deliberately erased from history. In Copenhagen, Denmark, is an old harbor warehouse that was once filled with sugar and rum for which Black lives were traded. It is the only statue of its kind, commemorating a Black female slave who led a fight for freedom. Use it well!