As we remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., let us recall his many words and actions besides the “I Have a Dream” speech.

Many times during the struggle in the 1960s he kept saying we need the ballot. John Lewis marched on Selma as a young man and was brutally beaten to obtain the ballot.

Today we have two bills in the United States Senate that need to be passed to protect the ballot. Sen. Manchin cannot find 10 Republicans to vote for these bills, which work to strengthen our democracy. What is wrong with the party of Lincoln?

As John F. Kennedy once said, “Let us not seek the Republican answer nor the Democrat answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

Now we hear the voice of Jim Clyburn, “I am a black person, descended of people who were given the vote by the 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment was not a bipartisan vote. It was a vote of a single party that gave us the right to vote.” We need to get rid of the Filibuster and pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John L. Lewis Bill.

All members of Congress should be supporting these two bills.

Margaret Meeker

Williamstown