Attention: Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way The mid-term elections were a failure

By Amos King

I am outraged over the mid-term elections that we just finished voting for. As far as I’m concerned, we get what we deserve.  There is no way that Brian Kemp should have been allowed to run for governor while he continued to hold his position as Secretary of State. That is a clear conflict of interest. He should have been forced to step down as soon as he threw his name in the hat. There were many organizations that knew about his voter suppression tactics but waited until it was too late to sue him.

I’m also outraged because too many of us did not participate in this election, despite President Obama and Oprah Winfrey coming to town to “get out the vote.” And let me just add that I think it’s a shame that they had to come to town push anything. But apparently, even their visit didn’t make a difference to many. Not one local precinct had a 100 percent voter turnout. Embarrassing.

We should also be embarrassed that many of those who did exercise their right to vote didn’t even know the issues that were at stake. I saw for myself that there were people who had stood in line waiting to vote and then had no idea of the questions that were on the ballot.  I blame our state legislators for that. They failed to call town hall meetings to go over the amendments.  You could be voting your house away and not even know it, thanks to them. Our state lawmakers knew or should have known that the language on those amendments might be confusing . It’s a shame that many of them have held office for years and did not step up to the plate to make sure people were aware of the issues before going to the polls.

I’m sounding the alarm because we can no longer continue down this path. Some of our elected “deans” have served long enough. We must elect new leadership. We must get behind more young people and groom them to become the leaders that we need. Young people like Charles Hill, Jr. and Mary Pat Hector need our support and encouragement.

We’ve got to stop voting by name recognition and put more focus on track records.  We’ve got to send the old leadership a message: We’re tired of barbecues and breakfasts. We want leaders who will take care of the people’s business.

And finally, we need our churches to become more involved. We need them to be part of the community’s think tank all of the time, not just when it’s time to vote.  house. They can’t just talk about the business of the Lord and not be about the business of the people.

Amos King is host of the radio show, “The Amen Corner,” which airs Fridays, 9 a.mEST., on WYZE -1480 9 a.m. (wyzeradio.com).