If showing up is “half the battle,” let’s make sure that we show up at the voting booth, too

If showing up is “half the battle,” let’s make sure that we show up at the voting booth, too 

The aphorism, “showing up is half the battle,” often gets attributed to controversial filmmaker Woody Allen, but many of us saw this abstraction made real this week at the Kansas Statehouse. 

Tuesday, 60 people packed a small conference room for the beginning of hearings aimed at the possible censure or expulsion of Rep. Ford Carr. People had to drag chairs into the room from elsewhere. Many had to stand. The chair asked for the doors to remain open to keep the room cool. 

Temperatures in the room however, bubbled hot under the surface. Pastors, community leaders, and concerned citizens made the trek it seemed, for reasons beyond supporting the embattled Carr. 

Carr has had a colorful time in the legislature since succeeding the beloved Rep. Gail Finney who died in 2022. Never seems to start these fracases he’s found himself in, but more than willing to end them. People don’t exactly look at him and think of him as vulnerable or unable to defend himself. 

But these hearings were bigger, than any one person. 

There were the obvious arguments about how a censure, or an expulsion could strip roughly 25,000 constituents of a voice in their state government. There was also, the seeming lack of real due process. When Carr asked what he was being charged with, he was told by the chair that he didn’t have to tell him that. Carr was also receiving 40-page memos the day before that first hearing. 

But many audience members in the gallery said that if extremist legislators could eliminate Carr, it was likely that the rest of Kansas’ Black delegation would soon find themselves in the crosshairs of the extremists now actively trying to stamp out any and all diverse voices in the legislature, and they weren’t going to stand for that. 

Many of the same folks showed up two days later and filled an even larger room, only to be told that the hearing had been postponed. Audience members were undeterred, vowing to show up as often as necessary. 

Again, they expressed support for Carr in his fight to remain a legislator, but that this show of force was necessary to signal that any future attempt at slick, procedural persecution of a Black legislator would be confronted with equal or greater zeal. Audience members thought the chair had hoped to do his dirt in secret, not under the glare of people prepared to fight for their own representation. 

Carr’s accuser has not shown up for either hearing, which also seemed patently unfair. 

The Woody Allen quote, though, reflects the importance of remaining actively engaged, a kind of peace-through-strength posture. Sabre rattling is warranted when your rights are being threatened. 

We need to ensure, though, that we keep showing up, not just to committee rooms for individuals, but also to the voting booth for the sake of Black representation and for the health and safety of our communities statewide.