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EQUAL VOTING RIGHTS PETITION: CALL TO ACTION!
One year ago, I launched this petition (link above) on MLK’s birthday because I believe he’d agree that any legal American citizen should have the exact same voting rights. Further, I think he would define the current equal voting rights ban that disenfranchises the residents of Puerto Rico (a territory of the United States) as a Civil Rights issue. 
Perhaps he would even agree with me that – because the 23rd Amendment was passed in 1961 (in part) as an acknowledgement that the residents of D.C. were being marginalized (stated by historian, Clement E. Vose, when he said “various factors… residency requirements and social ostracism before the Voting Rights Act of 1965—minimized black registration and voting.”) – that the time has come for our legal Puerto Rican citizens (part of our nation’s largest minority group) to be similarly empowered via another Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 
When I launched my petition 366 days ago, I symbolically set my one year goal at 2,800 signatures to correlate with the proposed idea of a 28th Amendment movement; urgently requesting that the U.S. Congress debate this issue. Since then, my campaign has exceeded it’s goal; garnering signatures from people all over the world disappointed in this aspect of our American democracy.
And, to be clear, I’ve said all along that I believe this voter disenfranchisement injustice pertaining to the residents of Puerto Rico is separate and apart from the issue of status (statehood) for the island. Furthermore, the current voting ban of legal American citizens continues to be a stain on our nation’s democratic principles. Surely, our U.S. system of government can resolve this problem without the involvement of the United Nations (where legal action has been sought). 
Motivated by change agents in our nation’s history like Martin Luther King Jr., I’ll now move to the second phase of my 28th Amendment campaign, which will be to deliver this petition to the President of the United States, members of Congress, the United Nations and to all groups, individuals and organizations connected to my efforts herein.
I welcome your support and encourage you to contact me at NEWYORICANGIRL.COM if you’d like to join me in this voting equality movement which, I am certain, is one of my Hispanic community’s most important Civil Rights issues of our time.
Let us work together to empower our fellow Americans with equal voting rights, regardless of which patch of U.S. soil they live on. Many around the world monitor our democracy in action and do not understand why any of our legal citizens are denied the same voting rights that you and I take for granted.
We must do better because our children want to believe that America stands for liberty and justice for ALL.
NEWYORICANGIRL 1/16/14