Standing with and moving forward

People come together for all sorts of reasons. Families, communities, and neighbors unite their strengths to fight for their beliefs, rights, and values. People come together in solidarity. And it's a beautiful thing. 

This weekend marked the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma. We should all give thanks and remembrance for those who so boldly and bravely risked and gave their lives to fight for the rights of not just African-Americans, but all Americans.  

We've come a long way throughout the years because of movements like this. Not one compares to another; all have fought different fights to build what we are today. 

We cannot afford to go back in any measure. 

Thousands of workers gathered at the West Virginia state capitol for the "Mountaineer Workers Rising" rally on Saturday, standing up for the rights and protections we have fought for to provide for our workers and their families. We have fought to ensure that our workers are provided good wages and to ensure they come safe from a hard days' work. West Virginians were joined by our brothers and sisters from all around our state to support our hardworking families. 

Saturday was what it's all about. 

Hardworking West Virginia families have built this state and we will not stand by while the Republican leadership strips their wages, workplace safety and rights away. 

We need to take it back to our values. What we're seeing right now from the new Republican majority in our Legislature does not represent West Virginia's values. We need to fight for our workers, our families and our children. We can't stop now. We need to be sure that all of our hardworking families are registered to vote and will vote for a leadership that will fight for them, and not for corporate greed and out-of-state interest groups. 

Our voting rights have been fought for, and "Bloody Sunday" serves as a reminder that individuals risked and gave their lives for these voting rights we have today. We must not take that for granted.

We must use our anger, our sadness, our gratitude and our strength to exercise our voting rights and remember who has stood by our children, our families and our workers.