Why I’m Voting for Jill Stein

My father taught me a lot of things over the years, and one lesson has proven to be particularly pertinent given the recent political climate. One night, when I was around 9 years old, he said that dinner was going to be either stewed ants or deer droppings, my choice. Cleverly puzzling out that the deer might have eaten some ants, which would make the droppings droppings and ants, I went with the regular ants. My father promptly chortled and told me that when given the choice between two evils, “just say steak”. We ate the droppings as punishment for my low standards.

What I learned that night was that sometimes you have to look beyond the meager choices offered to you and go for something bold, something better than what others deem to be the only possible avenues. The future holds infinite possibilities, and to settle for the ones which seem most comforting or familiar is to sacrifice your sense of ambition, and to desecrate the spirit of progress.

Our country is in the midst of difficult and treacherous times. We appear trapped in the general election between two absolute psychopaths: a raving, untrustworthy, snakelike liar, and Donald Trump. Either road will only lead to more suffering, more upset, and more violence. But there is another road, a road which many refuse to consider simply out of fear. That road is Jill Stein.

Jill Stein is the only sane and respectable candidate running. This means that she is the only candidate who deserves to be president. Plain and simple. She is the “steak”, the “steak” that we cannot see for the agonizing images of ants and droppings. Historically, third parties candidates have never gone far, but, equally historically, anything is possible and patterns can break when enough like-minded citizens join forces.

But change is only possible when enough people can commit in spirit to the idea of an alternative future. Change is only possible when enough people band together to reject the certainties that they have been force-fed in the name of systemic tradition. Change is only possible through the third door.

So I urge you, fellow students, fellow readers, come this fall, cast your vote for the only clean dish: Stein 2016. Without your help, dinner mightn’t be so appetizing.