I voted for you today…

I voted for you today….my dear daughter, granddaughter and all other female family members, friends and women of this country. I want you to have the freedom to make decisions about your own body. I want you to walk the path of equality with men. Never to feel that you are the lesser sex because of lesser pay. Never to feel unworthy as a woman and undervalue your spirit and soul. You are beautiful inside and out, no matter your size and without judgement of your physical looks. You deserve a place beside men and not behind men. You are nurturers and compassionate caretakers, not sexual objects for the fancy of men and boys. I voted for you today.

I voted for you today…the racial minorities of this country. I want you to have the same advantages to succeed in this country without bigotry and hatred toward your ethnicity and heritage. You deserve to practice your faith, your traditions and your customs without retribution for being “different” than the white man who claims the throne. We are all immigrants here in a historical sense yet many of us deny our own ancestors in order to appear  “The American”. You and I are the melting pot of our country, the rich and diverse culture that makes America the beautiful. I voted for you today.

I voted for you today…the poor and the homeless, the forgotten ones of this country. I want you to have food in your belly, a bed to sleep in and a roof over your head. Everyone in this country deserves to have health care, including you. Many of you work full-time yet can not afford to provide for your family. You deserve decent wages for your work and a fair minimum wage. Your children need to have hope that their life can be better. They need to be able to see past the desperate lives of living day-to-day not knowing what comes tomorrow. I voted for you and them today.

I voted for you today…LGBT community of this country. It is your right to love another without the intrusion of society dictating to whom you may love or marry. You are entitled to the same economic benefits given to other married couples. You deserve equal protection under the law against discrimination whether at work or in your community. You are a beacon for others to come together in humanity as one and accept each other for our wonderful individuality. You are brave and true to your soul for declaring who you really are in life. I voted for you today.

I voted for you today…men and women in blue of this country. Your everyday “life on the line” is truly that. You deserve the respect of the public and the support of your community in order to do your job well. You are entitled to be trained well to answer the call and give your best judgement in every situation. You deserve to have your community come together and work through the difficult issues together. The effort needs to be made to assist you in finding the path to walk alongside those you serve. I voted for you today.

I voted for you today…the black men and women who feel that their lives no longer hold value in our communities of this country. Those who struggle to stay above the current issues yet are pulled down by feeling robbed of their dignity and life worth. Those that struggle to break the stereotypes placed upon their backs, heavy and burdensome. You deserve to have your community come together and work through the difficult issues together. The effort needs to be made to assist you in finding the path to walk alongside those you live amongst, with dignity and respect for both. I voted for you today.

I voted for you today…our veterans and armed services personnel of this country.  Your service should never be disgraced by our lack of commitment to you when returning from war. You are entitled to be respected and provided for…never left to be homeless, unserved by medical care or inaction towards your disabilities obtained by serving us. You deserve fair wages and benefits for protecting us. We should be committed to you by not sending you into battles that are not ours to fight…only ours to lose life. War is death, ugly and you deserve a Commander In Chief who will never forget the consequences of war, who will exhaust all conflict resolution practices and treaties. It is easy for Americans to say that we support you…but our actions need to support our words. I voted for you today.

I voted for you today…the adults of tomorrow of this country. The seekers of science and technology..the philosophers and deep thinkers…the musicians and artists and writers. You deserve to gain a full education whether it is in medicine, engineering, the fine arts or technical schools. We need you all to build a better future. You need us to make it affordable for you to pursue your goals and in turn give us a return on our investment…your growth and wisdom. You deserve to have a future on this planet to raise your families. Climate change must be faced and decisions made to give you and your descendants a place here to call home…like your parents and grandparents have had. I think of you often and wonder when we will finally wake up to realizing that your physical future on this planet is even more dire than your economic future. I voted for you today.

I voted for you today….those of you consumed with anger and feeling that nothing has changed these past 8 years in this country. You have not seen jobs bills created, infrastructure created and changes to our way of life to make your hard work pay off. Your taxes seem to take it all, your hours of work are endless and some of you are being phased out…(coal mining is hit hard for one) You deserve the truth about your future and the support to provide you with necessary skills to change for our evolving world. We must make changes and you are being fooled by corporate America in thinking otherwise. While I understand the frustration and anger, I truly wish you would understand who is holding back the cogs of the system. It is Congress and obstructionism. They must be shown that we will not tolerate their playing politics above the good of our country. I want change too. I want a strong economy, a healthy workforce and lower taxes…for those of us not at the top. I want loopholes to be closed and the top 1% to pay their fair share. I want you to understand that it is not the woman at the checkout line using food stamps that is taking so much out of your pocket…it is the corporations. I want you to see beyond the glare and ugliness of this campaign season, beyond the fear mongering and hyperbole fed to all of us. I want you and I to be able to discuss our views and opinions without insults thrown and emojis strewn without forethought. I care about you. I care about our country. I care about humanity. I voted for all of us today…except Donald Trump.