Why I owe it to my son to support Hillary
When my wife and I brought our adopted son home from Guatemala 12 years ago, we had all of the worries of new parents. We barely knew how to change a diaper and were uneasy about how he would do on his first airplane ride. In the months and years since that trip home, we also carried with us some of the worries that come with being a bi-racial family. We’ve tried to help our pre-teen manage the strangers’ eyes on him in public and the well-intended but intrusive comments that come when people see a darker-skinned child with lighter-skinned parents.
But I couldn’t have imagined 12 years ago how presidential politics might intrude on our lives.
In our early years as a family, even as a staunch Democrat, I would proudly show my son President Bush’s signature on his certificate of citizenship. After all, here was the president of the United States signing his name to the document that told my son he was fully a citizen of his adopted country. And more than that, this was a president who proudly spoke the language of my son’s birthplace.
Today, the Republican candidate for president wants to put my son in a box called “The Hispanics”, suggesting to white voters that he is a “them” not an “us.”
I am not more of an American than my son is. But that’s what Donald Trump wants me to believe when he questions the loyalties of Judge Curiel and when he turns time again to the “us” versus “them” rhetoric.
Of course, Donald Trump’s language has been even worse than this, uglier, more bigoted, and racist on various occasions. I can try to protect my son from the worst of what Trump has said, but I can’t protect him from elements of our society, however small, who are emboldened by Trump to act in ways that could do him real harm.
If I’ve done my job as a parent, my son will go into the world with confidence as an American, a Latino, a Guatemalan by birth, among many other things. He is fully all of these things, as fully as he is my son.
I am voting for Hillary Clinton because I support her agenda and believe in her ability to carry it forward. But I’m also supporting Hillary because I know that if she were to look at my son, she would not see a threat or a “them.” She would see the opportunity represented in this young American’s life, and I know that she offers a vision for the country that gives me confidence for the next generation.
For me, this election is personal, not partisan. I owe it to my son to do my part to see that Hillary is elected and Donald is defeated.
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