This year, the day August 18 took on greater meaning for me than it has in the past. August 18 is the day 95 years ago in 1920 when the 19th amendment to the US constitution was ratified. That amendment granted women the right to vote.

Why is the date more notable to me this year? After all, my entire life, I have taken it for granted that I as a woman would have the right to go into a polling place and cast my vote. And I was taught growing up that the act of voting is to be valued and to be practiced without fail. I can recall how my grandparents showed me that it was also important to volunteer to help register voters between elections, and to work at the polls on election days.

The right to vote for women was not won easily. So many suffragists stood up to the prevailing male prejudices which worked against them. Susan B. Anthony spent her entire life working for women’s suffrage, and died in 1906 at the age of 86, 14 years before the glorious August day in 1920 when her struggle finally was won. I look to Susan B. Anthony for inspiration whenever I get tired in the work for justice, remembering to keep on keeping on, believing victory will come.

This year, I look at the work for voting rights with more intensity and even religious fervor. It is once again a very present struggle, not just an inspirational tale from the past. Our faith inspired me to act. Our first UU principle reminds us that each person has worth and dignity, and for me, that means I have a responsibility to affirm and promote that principle when I feel dignity is being denied to some. And our fifth principle affirms the importance of the democratic process.

And so, grounded and impelled by our faith, I travelled to Selma in March to participate in a conference about the 50th anniversary of the voting rights struggle in Alabama, and commemorated the society-changing confrontations of Bloody Sunday and the march to Montgomery in 1965. And then I was compelled to travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina in July to confront the current threat to our democracy. Thousands came to march and rally in support of the NAACP which is suing North Carolina in federal court, to challenge recently-passed laws which place restrictions on the ability of poor, elderly, and many people of color to cast a vote. Once again, the fight must be waged, and the case must be made, to restore voting rights for all.

For more than 75 years, women had to organize, picket, march, and yes, be beaten by police and put in jail, in pursuit of the right to vote. And for 100 years after Emancipation, African Americans had to organize, picket, march, and yes, be beaten by police and put in jail, in pursuit of equal protection under the law to practice the constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. This year, 50 years after Selma, 95 years after the 19th amendment, people of faith have been re-awakened to the truth that we must join and act in solidarity to protect the rights of all to be able to vote. The struggle cannot be over as long as hate, greed and fear conspire to keep people from adding their voices to our democracy.

I urge every person of faith to act now for democracy – help get folks registered to vote, write a letter to an elected official or publication editor protesting misguided efforts to make it harder for people of vote, volunteer to help with Get Out the Vote initiatives. Put your faith into action!