In 2023, we marked the sixtieth anniversary of the March on Washington and my father’s “I Have a Dream” speech, an anniversary that felt especially poignant at this critical moment when our democracy had reached a tipping point and a lot of what my father fought for was being eroded.

The rights that Americans hold dear are under attack across the country. Reproductive rights, the ability to be ourselves, and the very pillars of our democracy are weakening by the day. The crisis has turn out to be so severe that my daughter enjoys fewer rights today than she did when she was born 15 years ago.

It isn’t any coincidence that the erosion of our civil liberties has coincided with the rollback of voting rights in states across the country. When my father marched for equality many years ago, he understood that voting rights are a essential a part of the fight for freedom and equality. Those on the other side know this too, which is why they’ve systematically made it harder for each American to vote. Eligibility requirements, polling places, and polling hours have been rigged to prevent too many Americans from voting. In my home state of Georgia, it has even been made against the law to serve water to someone waiting in line to vote.

Our voting rights must be sacred, and any attempt to suppress or take away the right to vote have to be stopped. My father used to say, “Oppression is legislated.” Change for the higher must be legislated, not oppression. Legislate change. Legislate hope. Not hate.

That is why my wife Arndrea and I are mobilizing to demand a brand new federal election law that restores the right to vote not only as an aspiration, but as a reality, and ensures that each eligible voter, no matter race, nationality or place of residence, has the opportunity to vote and forged a ballot knowing that their vote counts.

Elections

But we don’t have to wait for Congress to act. Efforts to expand voting access are underway across the country, including the mobile voting campaign. Few efforts have the potential to impact voter turnout like mobile voting. Too many citizens are excluded from the voting booth by existing voting options—from our military members to voters with disabilities and even our youth. Mobile voting would allow all voters to exercise their most elementary democratic right using the same technology they use of their day by day lives. No more waiting in hours-long lines to get to the polls. No more busy parents carrying drained toddlers. No more young students trying to juggle school, work, and life while trying to get to the polls. And no more threats or intimidation to keep some voters from going to the polls.

Why don’t we increase voter participation to give everyone a probability to be heard? Why don’t we ease the barriers for low-income voters and help hourly staff? Why don’t we eliminate the barriers faced by disabled voters who find it incredibly difficult to get to the polls on Election Day? Shouldn’t they’ve the same right to vote as everyone else?

Every vote lost to accessibility or suppression is a loss to democracy. Expanding access is important, and evolving through technology is an indication of the times. We already spend a lot time on our smartphones—from paying bills to accessing healthcare. I’ve been banking on my phone for years, and never once has my money gone where it shouldn’t have. We know that mobile voting has security risks, identical to other voting methods. But given how embedded mobile technology tools are in our day by day lives, we also understand that these risks could be mitigated. Surely the need to protect and expand access to our democracy requires us to balance these risks and be sure that every citizen can exercise their right to vote.

Every positive change is all the time hard fought. We in Institute of Drum Majors I like to say, “Don’t give up, don’t quit, don’t give in.” My dad used to say that people and not using a vote are powerless. And one among the most significant steps we are able to take is that short step to the ballot box. Vote along with your heart and your mind, but vote in the most accessible, attainable way possible. Democracy is dependent upon it.

Vice President Harris has begun to extend her lead over former President Trump in the general public eye, in response to a poll conducted after the highly publicized September 10 debate.

poll showed Harris is leading by five points over Trump, up from just three and 4 points in the identical poll before ABC’s debate in Philadelphia. In the times since, Harris has been seen as largely winning the controversy. Her growing support reflects public opinion of her. More than 50% of respondents within the poll said they might vote for Kamala Harris if the election were held today. Only 45% said they might vote for the previous president after Tuesday’s debate.

More surprisingly, she also leads Trump amongst independents, where her support is 46% to his 40%.

The analysts wrote: “It is too early to tell whether Harris’ debate performance is a key factor in our latest head-to-head results, as our near-term trends suggest she was already gaining ground ahead of Tuesday’s televised showdown.”

The evaluation assumes Harris’ stirring debate performance will proceed to be her selling point amongst voters.

In addition to the larger poll, more direct data suggested Harris was the favourite to win the controversy after she managed to tug Trump into spreading “conspiracy theories,” shouting, and avoiding eye contact along with her. Poll respondents said she did a higher job than him discussing immigration and abortion, and he or she generally looked as if it would dominate the stage over him.

the survey was conducted just a day after the controversy and announced that he had collected data “from at least 3,317 likely voters with a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.”

Harris and Trump met for the primary time on the controversy stage in Philadelphia, a pivotal moment for the vice chairman.

Harris has brought her own policy ideas to Trump and has remained independent from President Biden.

Trump later said he would now not debate Vice President Kamala Harris.

Asset he said media: “We held two debates and since they were successful, there will be no third debate.”

Andreen McDonald’s dreams of success began to come back true until five years ago when her stays were found scattered amongst cow bones in a farmer’s field in San Antonio, Texas.

The enterprising mother and wife had vanished into thin air, and her husband, Air Force Major Andre McDonald, refused to talk to police. With no official reason for death or known enemies, the case hinged on a yellow carpenter’s hammer found hidden in a trash can in her garage.

Who was Andrea McDonald?

At 29, Andreen’s labor and dedication have led her to the life she at all times imagined. Originally from Jamaica, she fell in love with a handsome U.S. Air Force major, 10 years her senior, when he visited the island for a funeral. They began a whirlwind romance, married, moved to the United States and welcomed a daughter, Elena, into their family, reports “48 hours” in “Andreen McDonald: The Millionaire Vanishes.”

While Andre was working as a cyberwarfare analyst at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, McDonald began an assisted-care company that quickly grew into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

The businesswoman prided herself on her punctuality and exercised frequently, so when she failed to indicate up on the gym or at work on the morning of March 1, 2019, her co-employees knew something was mistaken.

In the times after her disappearance, police uncovered tiny clues that pointed to something terrifyingly near home. Her blood was found on the lavatory light switch, and a strange pile of charred stays was found in the sprawling backyard. Within a day, her husband, Andre, had turn out to be the prime suspect, however it would take 4 long years to bring him to justice.

Accusations of infidelity

To outsiders, the couple was the epitome of happiness, but detectives say their life went into crisis when Andre discovered that his wife had renewed her affair along with her old flame in Jamaica.

In 2018, Andreen got tattoos of the person’s initial and date of birth. The couple narrowly avoided divorce, but after Andreen covered up her tattoos and ended the affair, family and friends believed they’d already come to terms with the event.

But text messages from the night before she disappeared, obtained by police, painted a different picture, as Andre furiously accused her of cheating on him. He told police he went to a gas station to get gas and funky down, then went home and slept in one other bedroom, and that was the last time he saw her.

The day after she disappeared, undercover officers followed him to a gun shop, where he bought a handgun and ammunition. Thinking he intended to commit suicide, authorities detained him for a psychiatric evaluation and issued a search warrant for the couple’s home, where they found a smoking gun.

Evidence results in arrest

They found a yellow carpenter’s hammer in the corner of the garage and Andre’s bloody clothes in a garbage can.

A shovel, axe, hatchet, gas cans and gloves were found in her automotive, and a torn up Lowe’s receipt for those items was thrown in the trash. When DNA evaluation confirmed Andreen’s blood was on the hammer, police moved in and arrested Andre on charges of tampering with evidence for tearing up the receipt.

At that time, her body had not yet been found and the case was still not officially ruled a murder.

Detectives turned to the general public for help, spreading the story to the media and asking for support from the Air Force, which sent a special team to look a whole lot of miles for clues to her whereabouts.

The breakthrough in the case finally got here on July 11, 2019, when a farmer discovered a human skeleton covered in cow bones in his field. Although Andreen had injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, pathologists were unable to find out a reason for death resulting from the degraded state of her stays.

Despite this, McDonald was charged and pleaded not guilty to murder. Days before his trial in April 2021 began, he made a shocking confession that will change his fate endlessly.

Some imagine it was a clever tactical move to avoid being charged with murder. He shared details of Andreen’s death along with her family, claiming he killed her in self-defense.

He stuck to that story throughout the trial, recounting details from the stand in regards to the horrific fight they’d the night she died. He claimed she had began a second business and kept it a secret from him for greater than a 12 months, prompting further divorce threats and a brutal fight.

“She got extremely angry at the thought of us dividing up and she ran into the room to confront me … she got right in my face, at this point she spits in my face. That’s when I grabbed her and I think our heads collided and I think she got a cut somewhere on her face,” he said in video testimony obtained by “48 Hours.”

Andre noted that she was extremely “strong” and will bench press as much as 300 kilos. When she became enraged and started hitting him, he threw her to the bottom, fearing for her safety, he said.

“Then I kicked her twice and on the second kick, I think I heard some kind of wheezing sound,” he testified.

After putting his daughter to bed, he returned to the lavatory and found Andreen dead.

“I never thought about calling someone to resuscitate a dead person,” he said. Instead of calling 911, he dumped his wife’s lifeless body in a field, stripped her naked and burned her clothes.

What about Hammer?

Armed with that information, the jury had to make your mind up whether the person had deliberately murdered her, it was manslaughter or self-defense — but they still couldn’t find an evidence for using the hammer.

Andre explained on the stand that after investigators searched his home, he returned to the field and set her body on fire. After the flames subsided, he attacked her burned stays with a hammer.

Although he was charged with murder, which carried a life sentence, a jury in February 2023 delivered a lighter sentence of manslaughter after an almost 11-hour stalemate. He is currently serving 20 years in prison, and his appeal of the conviction was rejected in August 2024. Andreen’s mother and sister have custody of their young daughter, Elena.