My Mother and this Election

Hillary Clinton suffered a disadvantage over the last several months. It’s an advantage that Barack Obama enjoyed during both of his Presidential campaigns. My mother was here, on this earth, voicing her advocacy for her candidate. If you ever met my mother, you would know that having her in your corner was a competitive advantage that belied her petite stature. By this point my mother would have already voted. But had she been here among us who are still confined to this realm, she would have been spending the last several months reminding everyone how important it is to elect Hillary Clinton.

My mother was not a partisan loyalist. She always voted for the candidate that she felt was the nicest, had the best policies for families, and acted in a dignified manner.  And she was not always vocal about her choices. But as she grew older, and her family grew to include grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she began to speak out for the candidates she believed would help shape a better future and world for them. And she was determined that her will would be the voter’s will.

She did not shy from any topic. Although I am glad that she did not have to hear the so-called locker room banner spewed by a candidate that I cannot even bring myself to mention the name of in a sentence that also refers to my mother. But, she would have found a way to demonstrate her disgust regarding that as any self-respecting southern lady would.

My mother wielded her charm like a lasso, reeling you in, and not releasing you until you had heard every possible convincing argument she could make. You could not just walk away from her sweet and natural style. I am quite certain that there were people who had figuratively or actually been cornered by my mother and heard her out. And when they that cast their vote they heard her voice calmly, but firmly making a case for doing the right thing.

So if you are voting today, I hope that you hear my mother’s voice. I hope she dials straight into your voting booth from her cell phone in heaven and reminds you to vote compassionately for social justice, for equality, for education, and religious freedom. She will remind you what a special person you are and how important your voice is. Let it be heard today.