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Will too many people show up?
That's what we should be wondering about a political forum Tuesday sponsored by the Tampa Bay Roundtable, a coalition of 17 black organizations.
After all, just four decades ago, blacks were beaten for trying to vote. The villains standing in the way were segregationists, ruffians who saw nothing wrong with keeping people from trying to exercise a basic American right.
You would expect, after all those historic sacrifices, to find blacks engaged in politics in the year 2004.
Will too many show up Tuesday?
Instead, I wonder whether there will be too few.
Today, so many blacks have been beaten not by ruffians, but by cynicism and apathy.
LAST WEEK, I DEBATED a young friend of mine on the merits of voting. He's a college student, young, gifted - and jaded when it comes to politics.
Calling upon the most tragic stories of the civil rights movement, I argued voting was a debt he owed to people who gave up so much for his right to do so.
I asked him to consider the deaths of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, whose murders were the inspiration for the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning.
But such profiles in courage don't seem to resonate with this new generation. Maybe it's because today's kids have rights that couldn't be taken for granted in the 1960s. Maybe parents and schools aren't putting enough emphasis on how blacks "treaded our path through the blood of the slaughtered," as James Weldon Johnson wrote in Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing.
Maybe it simply happened too long ago.
Even people who have preached the merits of the electoral process at local high schools have found that discussions of the current Iraqi conflict galvanize teens more than the civil rights movement does.
Then there's the lack of faith some have in government. My young friend pointed to the problems of the 2000 presidential election, the latest controversy regarding the state's list of ineligible felons and a sense that simply going to the poll was no match for the supposed complex conspiracies of "the enemy."
He figures one vote won't win an election and, in a state like Florida, it might even be ignored.
But if the soldiers of the civil rights movement fought so we could have a voice, we ought to fight skepticism to keep it. By any means necessary.
Our motivation should come not only from the knowledge that someone stepped forward to make a difference for the future, but also from the responsibility we have to do the same for our children and grandchildren.
"I think young black folks have very little connection with the civil rights movement," said Ken Anthony, board member for the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs, one group behind Tuesday's Tampa Bay Roundtable forum.
"As older people, it's our responsibility to emphasize that and help them realize the importance of voting. We can do that by making that extra effort to get informed ourselves."
BLACKS HAVE LONG stopped being a monolithic voting mass, yet there are common issues we all share. The key is engaging candidates now and letting them know our votes can't be had unless they show some concern.
But we can't expect them to care unless we care first.
One of the best opportunities to make that stand comes Tuesday. The Tampa Bay Roundtable forum is set for 6 p.m. in Ragan Hall at 1200 E Lake Ave. It'll be a great chance to hear opposing views from candidates running for Hillsborough County's clerk of the court, state attorney and the District 5 school board seat.
"These races are critical in terms of their impact on the community," Anthony said. "It's important not just to vote, but to make an informed decision."
Will too many people show up?
A big crowd will send a message. So will a sparse one.
That's all I'm saying.
Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com