Today,
Vote By Mail America presented the first ever PILLAR of AMERICA Award to the Honorable John Lewis.
We came to Washington, DC to honor a great American for his incredible contribution to ALL AMERICANS in the area of voting rights. We are also here because what John Lewis and
many others (some who are still with us and more who are no longer with us)
accomplished is under an attack of the most sinister and cynical kind. There are
dark forces (think tanks, elected officials and even a political party) right
here in Washington who are engaged in an ugly and Un-American enterprise to disenfranchise
millions of us of our fundamental right to vote.
John Lewis accepting the PILLAR of AMERICA Award from Brent Scott of Vote By Mail America
When Vote By Mail America conceived
the PILLAR of AMERICA Award it was with some trepidation. After all, who are
we? We are not icons of the voting rights generation. None among our small
ranks are noted or famed individuals. And as our organization was founded just five
years ago we are not widely known in the voting rights community. 
We're average citizens. Ordinary
Americans who experienced some problems with polling place voting (ex: sites
opening too late and closing too early, long lines, traveling on election day, polling
sites being frequently relocated) and wanted to do something for other
Americans who experienced similar problems. Our primary intention was to educate
the public of a safe alternative to polling place voting - you can vote by mail and here's how.
Point your mouse, click on the Vote By Mail America map and obtain detailed information on how to
vote by mail in your state. That was the most of what we were about. No, we are not icons of the voting rights
generation like our honoree. And although we had some trepidation about creating the award, we were never in doubt as to who deserved it.
Nicole Austin-Hillery of the Brennan Center, honoring John Lewis
of the Advancement Project (center) Brent Scott of VBMA.
I grew up seeing the images of the marches, the sit ins, the boycotts, the dogs, the beatings, the water cannons and worse, the inhumanity that John Lewis and others were treated to. Those images make me at once ashamed and proud. I grew up hearing the speeches of John Lewis, Martin King and so many BRAVE others who wouldn’t just go away. They dared and they achieved. Today, we are not going to stand still, sit by and allow dark forces, dark money, cynical politicians and their operatives to stomp all over the voting rights achievements of a great movement that was fueled by a generation of dedicated people such as John Lewis.
The Honorable John Robert Lewis, Accepting the PILLAR of AMERICA Award presented byVote By Mail America
We say to the dark forces trying to undo, to take us back, to disenfranchise Americans of their hard won right to vote, "We're not going to let that happen." You see, it was worse for John Lewis. He faced contempt and scorn by a corrupt power structure and when he wouldn't just go away, he faced beatings, vicious dogs, water cannons and arrest and imprisonment. But he didn't cower. And we're not going to cower either. Not on this. Not on our rights. Not on the American triumph that was the voting rights movement. In the face of this new and ugly campaign to cheat, deny and steal the right to vote of Americans, we will if we have to walk in the footsteps of and stand on the shoulders of John Robert Lewis, a PILLAR of AMERICA.
By Brent
Scott,
Executive
Director of Vote By Mail America
