Now that it's made the front page of DKos, this is a bit late. But...this, not the returns from Wisconsin or Hawaii, not the speeches by the candidates, not the foolish bickering over who quoted who in which speech when, this is the story of the day.
The folks at Burnt Orange have covered this story nicely here, and additional pictures via a Houston TV station may be found here.
If you don't already know: Prairie View students marched 7 miles to vote. Sure, they could have probably gotten rides, and sure, they could have done it a few at a time -- but they didn't.
And they didn't because they were trying not only to vote, but to make a point about the way elections have been held there. It seems that there is a long -- a very long -- history of assorted anti-voter practices in play. A limited number of these can be dismissed as mere incompetence; but the systemic pattern over decades cannot, and no doubt that's why, as the Houston Chronicle noted, numerous lawsuits have been filed. (Coverage by the Chronicle may be found here and here).
30 years of election malpractice won't be corrected by a one-day march. But that's not the point. The point is that these young people take their access to the ballot box seriously enough to do this. When's the last time that we've seen anything like this from a college campus? And over something substantive, something crucial, something precious?
This story probably won't be the lead on any of the news networks, nor will it garner much coverage anywhere beyond the local media and the blogosphere. But it should. Those kids in Texas showed a grasp of what it means to be Americans far beyond that of many pundits and politicians. I wish I'd been there.
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day