Judging from my feed, a lot of good folks out there could use some bucking up ahead of tomorrow's midterms. I, for one, am optimistic. People have said that's naive, that old-fashioned liberals like me always put too much faith in people only to be let down. Some thoughts: /1
I spent my childhood being told one thing about America, but living something entirely different. We were taught that we were equal under the law, and we pledged allegiance to a flag, but inside of barbed wire fences. The promise of America was so hollow as to be meaningless. /2
But my father once told me that America is a democracy, as great as the people who inhabit it, but also as fallible. It was the people who had failed us, led by leaders who had crushed our dreams, caused the nation to rise up in fear against us, who were wholly innocent. /3
But the lure of the promise of equality, and the dignity of all persons, is a strong one. It makes you want to fight for it. And so I volunteered, as a campaign worker for Adlai Stevenson. Then the Civil Rights movement began, and I was again inspired by America's potential. /4
I grew up in a time when a Japanese American like me couldn't even marry a white woman, but now, today, I am married to my husband Brad. And that was because America took a hard look at itself and did the right thing in the end. /5
Hardly anything worth fighting for is ever won without a fight. We are a country born of genocide and slavery, but yearning for progress and justice. You have to know where you stand, what you will fight for. After eighty one years, I know it in my heart. /6
I will fight for the ideals of America, imperfect as our history and our process and our system is. They are lofty, noble, good ideas, ideas worth fighting, even dying for, as many who came before us have. We owe them so much. /7
Those souls that came before us will be on my mind as I cast my ballot this year. That they did not struggle, and fight, and even die for us in vain. With eyes shining, and heart uplifted, I will vote. /8
I will vote for truth, and freedom of the press, and science, and equality. I will vote for women, and racial minorities, and trans people and poor working whites. I will vote. /9
I will vote for sustainability, for job training, for education and for healthcare for all. I will vote for justice, and equal pay, and for the voiceless and the vulnerable. I will vote. /10
I will vote for migrant families, and children torn from their parents, and Dreamers. I will vote for compassion, and leadership, for peace and for tolerance. I will vote. /11
I will vote for gun violence prevention and sensible gun laws, and for a check against the corporate gun lobby. I will vote for an independent and honorable judiciary. I will vote. /12
Above all, I will vote for an America I believe in, one where a boy born looking like the enemy and locked in a camp for years can become something other than what they condemned him to be, the promised America, the America of our dreams. I will vote. /end
