I'm going to cast my first vote at 62
I'm going to cast my first vote at 62: Column
Etta Myers 6:29 p.m. EST March 9, 2016
After 36 years in prison, I helped restore voting rights for myself and other ex-offenders.
Prison was where I spent most of my life, and it was where I became an adult. I am 62 years old and I was sentenced to life plus five years in 1977, when I was 21. I always thought that once I was released, I'd start working to make life better for the people inside — the incarcerated women and men with whom I spent practically a lifetime.
The first step I took after my release was to fight for legislation that would restore the right to vote for 40,000 men and women on probation and parole in Maryland. We’ve already waited long enough to be a part of the American democracy, we’ve paid our dues, and we need our citizenship rights restored upon leaving prison.
That is how a fair and democratic American society ought to work.
On Thursday, a few weeks before next month's Maryland primary, our right to vote will be restored.
............
Because of our success, at age 62 I’ll soon be voting for the first time ever, and so will many of the women I shared my life with behind bars.
This day is especially meaningful to me because I spent 36 years in prison on a wrongful conviction. A Baltimore jury convicted me of first-degree murder based on testimony from three witnesses who, according to records, had been drinking and smoking marijuana. I was one of several dozen inmates released in 2013, when the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that in many cases from decades ago, jurors were given incorrect instructions leading to wrongful convictions.
After so long in prison, I want to start living like the rest of society. I long to take part in our democracy and make my voice heard. Voting is a right that gives me the ear of people in power and through that, I have the power to change what I know to be wrong: our country’s enormous problem with mass incarceration, which disproportionately impacts black and brown people.
It was in prison that my fight to help incarcerated people started. As a lifer, I realized that I was stripped of rights, and it awoke in me a need to fight for justice. I became the liaison between the prison population and the administration. For decades, I raised our concerns with the people in power, telling them how we desperately needed decent education and tolerable living conditions. I started a group for gang members ages 16 to 25, helping them out of criminal activity and back on the right path. All the while, I worked as a seamstress and studied upholstery. After eight years, I got my upholstery license, and at work release I started working for an upholstery company.
The Rest:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/09/first-time-voter-felon-age-62-maryland-column/81535722/
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Go Etta.
