I am a woman who has chosen a career that serves the public, a career that will solidify my position in the lower middle class. I am a woman who will (hopefully) someday be a mother and who is a teacher of an average of 20 children each year. I am a woman who wakes up everyday wondering what kind of world I will leave behind for the children I know and love. I am a woman who has become reluctant to watch or read the news and discuss politics because I have been so upset by some of the choices our country has made and the way our country, the country I love, has become divided over these choices. I am nervous about the world and the country our children will inherit.
On more than one occasion within the last eight years I have been outside of our country looking in and the view from outside isn't pretty. I am aware that there have always been hostile views toward our country but I am angered that the country I love is not the country that has been represented by our government's actions over the past few years.
As someone who lives my life everyday trying to respect the views and beliefs of other people in the world, I have been withholding a scream of outrage and a cry of anguish as I watch a whole new wave of discrimination in this century through the denial of rights to human beings in our country- as I watch leaders pass laws that limit the rights and equalities of other human beings by discriminating against the way that other individuals choose to live their lives. This is against everything our country was founded for.
I don't consider myself easily influenced or someone who can be wooed by pomp and show and I am not a woman who takes my responsibility to vote lightly. I know how many lives and how much blood, sweat, and tears went into providing me with the option, no, the right to stand in that voting booth as a free individual despite my race, economic status, sex, or sexual orientation. My vote will be my chance to express my hopes for my country. My hope that we can become a country that is less divided, more accepting of the beliefs and choices of all people, a country that is the example for the world in lessening impact on our environment, and a country that continues to promote the liberty for all humanity to live and let live when it comes to beliefs and life choices. My hope is for a country that funds a first-class education of our citizens as ammunition and uses diplomacy as the weapon for resolution. My hope is for a country that can be united enough to make a positive impact on our world, physically and politically.
There will never be a time when the whole of our country agrees on who the next president should be and that is part of the beauty of our country, we get to choose the candidate who best represents our own personal beliefs and hopes for our country without threat of any harm, discrimination, or threat for our decision- our choice. I would never tell anyone who to choose during their few minutes inside of the voting booth and that is not the purpose of this posting. The purpose is to get out all of the emotions that bubble up every time I consider my voting options. I want a presidential administration that makes me feel that all of the work that is being done and all of the decisions being made are to benefit as many Americans as possible, to bring about the best possible outcome for our country- not to bring about the best possible outcome for the administration. I want to believe in the decisions and choices of our country again. For a few minutes back on January 26th, March 18th, May 15th, July 24th, and again tonight I felt it was possible.
Two weeks ago I felt an overwhelming sense of American pride watching Michael Phelps conquer in the swimming pool. I had the same feeling last week when Misty-May and Kerri Walsh fought for gold, and the Redeem Team showed the world we are dedicated to representing our country well. All of the pride-filled events of the last few weeks cannot not hold a candle to what I felt tonight. No matter what your political view I hope that you were as proud as I was of the image on the television screen tonight- proud for the progress it represents of our country. You see, no matter who wins this election it has shattered discrimination and inequality barriers left and right. One day I will look back on tonight when I am telling my children at home and in the classroom of one of the greatest events in U.S. history. The day that an African-American woman spoke at a convention for a major political party where her husband, a mixed-race man, would be nominated as a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America. Two individuals who became who they are because of the rights and liberties they were provided as Americans. Political views aside, that moment tonight is exactly the view the world should be seeing of the progress of the United States. That image on the screen tonight is the embodiment of what our country was founded for. I am so proud of us.
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