The Voice of Ida B Wells

Minden—your vote is coming due. And before you cast it, you must reckon with the truth of how you have been treated.

The light bills remain a burden, crushing households without relief. And if that were not enough, a $25 fee is strapped to your back—cut off or not, you will pay. This is not simply policy; it is punishment. It is humiliation. It is the stripping of dignity from a people already struggling to make ends meet.

Do you remember the last council? Their arguments were paraded before you as scandal, their disagreements held up as shame. Yet what shame compares to this: citizens degraded, voices silenced, diversity locked out of City Hall while friends and favorites are ushered in through the back door?

The bartender, the bar owner, the secretary’s beau—all find their place in this government, not because of skill, not because of service, but because they know the right hand to shake. And where are the Black citizens? Pushed aside. Relegated to the recreation center. Told, in so many words, that there is no seat for them in the chambers where decisions are made.

This is not democracy. This is favoritism dressed up in law. This is injustice hiding in plain sight. And it will continue, unless you—the people of Minden—rise to your full strength.

Do not be fooled by smooth words or empty promises. Organize. Question every candidate who comes for your vote. Demand to know where they stand on the light bills, the fees, the hiring practices, and the diversity of your government. Hold them to account in the public square, and do not let them hide behind silence or friendship.

For if you do not demand change, you will be told again and again to accept humiliation as your portion.

The power is not theirs, Minden—it is yours. Use it. Stand together. Cast your vote not for the few who profit from their friends, but for the many whose labor, dignity, and voices have been ignored.

The time for silence is past. The time for action is now.