The Newsroom

It's been suggested that newspapers reconsider endorsing candidates because we live in divided times.

My view couldn't be more different. The main reason to endorse is to help advance the discussion and encourage those who might be less inclined to weigh in to actually do so. What message does it send if newspapers, which historically have endorsed candidates, suddenly decided not to? I'd rather us lead by example than back down out of fears that we might offend one side or the other.

That said, I'm going to talk a lot in the coming days and weeks about voter participation, and why each one of us need to do our part in leading by example.

I'll start with Carolyn Goodman, a New York woman whose son, Andrew, was among three civil rights workers whose murders during 1964's Summer of Freedom helped awaken American to the need to end discrimination. The three were in Mississippi to help increase voter registration among blacks. They were hunted down by a posse, shot to death and buried in an earthen dam. The story became inspiration for several books, songs and movies, including "Mississippi Burning." Forty-one years later, Edgar Ray Killen, a Ku Klux Klan organizer, was convicted of manslaughter in the case.

I interviewed Mrs. Goodman several years back, and was struck by her determination not only to see justice take place during her lifetime, but to make sure Americans understood what her son and countless others have died for - the right and the need to vote. Andrew Goodman was 20. James Chaney was 21. Michael Schwerner was 24.

Much has changed since then. An African American is now running for president.

But engaging voters remains a problem. Not since 1900 have more than two-thirds of registered voters taken the time to cast a ballot in a presidential election, and as recently as 1996, fewer than half bothered to vote. Carolyn Goodman, who died in August 2007 at age 91, never lived to see the fulfillment of that part of her son's legacy.