I received the following email from my friend Cynthia in California. It was sent to her by her friend Tamara and to Tamara by someone else. It's circulating around the country in effort to get the unenthused to vote. It's fairly inflammatory and will probably get the job done. My response to Cynthia was more personal.  PASS ON....!!! Passing it on. Please folks,  let's fight this with all we have!! We must vote on November 2, like our lives depend on it,because it does. The Republican party has been hi-jacked by dangerous,  radical hate mongers called the "Tea Party". They are led by Glen Beck and Sara Palin who's only goal is to take down President Obama and the government.  In any third world country this would be called a "Coup de Etat". In America we fight "coups" at the ballot box. These people hate Blacks. They hate Latinos . They hate Muslims and have at times made many anti-Semitic statements. They hate Gays. They hate any moderate Republican who might be likely to cooperate with Obama. Their rallying cry? "We want to take back our country!! Take it back from whom? American soil is still wet with the blood of our ancestors who fought for our right to vote. And vote we must! The polls say Republicans are going to win enough votes to take over the senate and congress because Democrats lack the enthusiasm to Vote. We must get as many people to the polls now as we did to vote for Obama. We don't need enthusiasm. We need to vote out fear. Fear that these radicals could take this country back to Jim Crow and the hey-day of the Klu-Klux-Klan. Don't think it could happen? Just stay home on election day and see what happens to this country. Time is very short. Don't leave the voting to the other guy. Try to reach as many people as you can, like African drums across America.   Thanks, Cynthia! I can't believe the amount of apathy the same people who were so excited in 2008 now have. They were carried to the polls then by a tidal wave of enthusiasm and hope. Now a flood of despair and hopelessness is keeping them away from the only recourse they have in these hard economic times: the ballot The only thing that WILL get us out of this recession/depression is to get back the enthusiasm of 2008 and put it to good use in 2010! I never understand black folks not voting. Any time I even question whether I'll vote or not I think back to when a poll tax was charged in Texas where I was born and educated. My grandmother, the other black teachers, the black doctor, and the black undertaker were the only blacks who could readily pay the small tax Texans were charged at the polls. It was a struggle for poor blacks trying to feed their families.  Before I wad born, my mother said an poor old black man was determined to vote and save pennies all year to get the couple of doctors he'd need to pay so he could vote. When he arrived at the polls and proudly poured 200 pennies on the table from an old syrup can, he smiled as the white poll worker painstakingly counted the coins. Smiling, the white man told the old black man he only had 199 pennies and would not be able to vote because he was a penny short.  That's what motivates me to vote, even when there's no one on the ballot I want to vote for or no issue I'm passionate about. I vote for that old black man who NEVER got to vote because he died before the next election and all the blacks and women who couldn't until amendments were added to the Constitution allowing them to, as well as those who were prevented from exercising their right to vote by hate and prejudice.  Voting is not only a right, but a responsibility for EVERY American citizen. Please forward or print and give this to anyone who says otherwise.