An open letter to Hillary Clinton

Dear Secretary Clinton,

It’s taken me a long time to arrive at this point, but here it is: I’m with you. Unfortunately for you, I don’t live in a swing state, but hey, I’m with you! That has to count for something, even in super blue state New York.

I thought that you might like to know how and why I arrived at the point of being with you. I haven’t always been “not with” you; I voted for you twice to represent NY in the Senate, and felt that you did an excellent job. But I did not vote for you in the primary. In either primary, in fact. While I wasn’t against you, I wasn’t with you, either. It’s not because of your positions; while I don’t fully support your foreign policy, trade, or environmental positions, I didn’t agree with then Senator Obama’s position on education, or Senator Sanders’ position on guns. Most of the ballots I’ve cast have been for politicians that I do not agree with 100%. So it wasn’t about policy. It was about inspiration, or lack thereof.

I found your campaign to be lacking in the ability to inspire the average citizen. You didn’t possess the rhetoric to match the remarkable campaigning ability of Barack Obama. You seemed to lack the passion that Bernie Sanders has to fire up millions of young voters. I voted for them in part because I am a lifelong Democrat, but mostly because their words and vision made me want to roll up my sleeves, jump in, and get in the fray of making things better. I wanted to be a participant rather than a spectator, and this was a new thing for me as a woman in her 30's.

When you prevailed as the nominee after a hard fought primary this year, I knew that I would vote for you. As I said, I’m a lifelong Democrat, and I do agree with your positions on most issues. I wasn’t one of the Bernie or bust folks that you had to win over. But I was not excited to vote for you; I felt that it was a vote for the party, and the ideas, rather than the candidate. And I wasn’t happy about that.

But yesterday, something changed. I was driving home from the grocery store with my children in the car. My daughter was looking out the window, and she said, “Mom, there’s a man holding a sign. And it’s scary.” I asked her what it said, and she replied, “Homeless and hungry in America. In a bad spot.” Hearing those words come out of my young child’s mouth made me freeze up. I was devastated that she could understand this, and in that moment, I knew that I couldn’t just drive by, that this was a teachable moment as a parent. And in that moment, your speech when you accepted the Democratic nomination came to my mind. I’m clearly not a Methodist, but the words that you attributed to your upbringing, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” really resonated in that moment. I had no cash in my wallet, so I took out a Starbucks gift card that was in my wallet that had a good amount of money on it, drove over, and handed it to the man, who thanked me. As we drove off, I said to my daughter, “It’s our job to help people whenever we can, however we can, as best as we can in the moment. We have to practice being brave and kind every day.” My daughter, in typical seven year old fashion, said, “OK. What’s for lunch?”

I don’t know if she’ll remember that moment. Maybe not, but we will continue to revisit this lesson throughout our lives, in a series of small and not-so-small moments. What I do know is that in this moment, when I wanted to do something good, to help a man who was clearly struggling, and wanted to teach my children kindness and compassion, your words were a part of my thought process. You, in your fantastic white pantsuit, came to my mind, and inspired me to act. So, I guess I was wrong about that whole “lack of inspiration” thing, Madame Secretary. We do not see 100% eye to eye on all issues, but I am with you, and proud to be. Go win this- and then do all the good you can.