I CAN REMAIN SILENT NO LONGER

Discussing politics is not my style. In fact, I hate it. I can remain silent no longer.

Just to be clear, I am not endorsing any of this year’s presidential candidates. Each of them has their pros and cons. For one in particular, I believe that the cons far out way the positives.

Inviting a foreign country to hack into American computers and commit espionage, and then backtracking a day later to say it was a joke, a sarcastic remark is not someone who is responsible enough to lead this country.

Someone who mocks people with disabilities, makes demeaning comments about women, obsesses over one of those comments and then tweets about it at three in the morning lacks the ability to assure the rights of all Americans. Even Gold Star parents have not been immune to these disparaging remarks.

A person who blurts comments without checking facts, who doesn’t think thorough the ramifications of what they say, like talking about their genitals on national television, cannot be trusted with the security of our nation. It demonstrates a serious lack of decorum and diplomacy that is needed for the oval office.

Inciting and encouraging supporters to be verbally and physically abusive to protesters shows poor lack of judgement and lack of respect for the opinions of others. This is not someone capable of calming unrest in this country or around the world.

Spending billions to build a wall between our country and Mexico with the intent to send them the bill is not an appropriate foreign policy. That will not ensure our safety, only feed hate and fear.

Someone who has filed for bankruptcy multiple times and has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of concern for working class individuals cannot be fiscally responsible with our country’s spending. A refusal to release tax returns is a major red flag that something important is being hidden from American voters.

A person who would turn away women and children that desperately seek a safe place to live just because they are Muslim is not upholding American values. It is the act of a prejudice individual. Are internment camps next? They were wrong in World War two and they are wrong now. So was Hitler.

Emma Lazarus wrote a poem that is posted on the base of the Statue of Liberty:

“…Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.…”

We are a country of immigrants, the land of opportunity. I am a third generation American. Unless you are descended from one of the Native American tribes, you too are descended from immigrants. Maybe even a first generation immigrant yourself.

This country has stumbled, picked itself up and stumbled again. But I am proud to be an American where I have the freedom to live as I’d like so long as it does not harm or impede the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of others.

Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his prejudice and lack of respect toward women, minorities, and non-Christians.  He is not the face of America.

I love my country and it pains me to see the hate and violence that seems to plague us lately, but fanning those fires is not an answer. Donald Trump will destroy this country and everything it stands for. His policies will isolate America from the global community we live in. He says it’s all for our own good. And so it begins with any abuser: Isolation; Demeaning comments; Blame; Escalation.

We not only have the right, but the responsibility to keep our country whole.

On November 2, 2016, I urge all of you to vote.