My grandmother was born in 1890 before women had the right to vote and she, and all of her daughters died never seeing a woman elected President. We may have won the right to vote in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, but there is much work to do to see a woman in the White House. Today we pick ourselves up and get to work to make the country a better place.
I am an unrepentant feminist, a social liberal, and fiscal moderate. I was a proud supporter of Hillary Clinton, and yet I am a proud American first. The thing that makes me most proud of our country today is that despite the polarization of our views we are all Americans first and every four years we wage peaceful, though not polite, political battles that lead to a peaceful transition of government. We wake up the next day with signs still in our yards and we greet our neighbor with love. We may not respect their political opinions, but we love them and cherish their freedom of opinion and their right to express it. And then together we go out and take food to the hungry, attend PTA meetings, lead Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, and engage in making our communities better. We do it together every day as neighbors.
Today, I’m not identified by a partisan political party. Today I’m blessed to be an American. Donald Trump is our President and while I respect the Presidency I do not respect intolerance. I wasn’t for Trump and found his behavior disturbing at best. America should hope that everything he said he was for was not true. Consider the consequences of building a wall, a religious test for becoming a U.S. citizen, punishing women that have abortions, promoting violence, a mass deportation force, or taking away insurance coverage from the 20 million people covered under the Affordable Care Act. What would that make our country?
Let’s pull together and go out there and commit to public service. We have work to do so long as there are people sleeping in the streets, children that are hungry, violence in our communities, racism and sexism, and people that do not make a living wage. Our communities depend on us – the people. Our country and our President need our prayers. More than prayers our country needs our service. We must reach out and embrace all of those that will feel scared and disenfranchised by this election. And, we must acknowledge that the working class feels forgotten and they spoke loudly with their vote.
If you are willing to be an active participant in changing the role we play in making our communities better join me. We can overcome the division and build Compassionate Policy.
