What Am I Fighting For?

Official portrait of Vice President of the United States . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I’d like to ask you one question right now: Of all the issues important to you, what’s the bottom-line reason you’re with us in this fight?” (e-mail from Joe Biden)

Yes, I know, this was not a personal e-mail. It is an e-mail sent out to anyone who has shown support for the Democrats in the past, and I am on that list.

But the question gave me pause to think.  What am I fighting for?

The list of suggestions in Biden’s e-mail included these important issues:

“For some folks, it’s making sure we’re continuing to create millions of good jobs here at home, and building an economy that’s made to last — not for the next election cycle or the next couple years, but for the long run. Or the idea that we ought to be protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare for future generations of Americans.”

But are those the issue’s I’m fighting for?

I don’t know that I can name a bottom line issue. Why? Because it is all intertwined. Because the things that I get most passionate about involve fairness, justice and equality. All of the things that this country was supposedly founded for, but, in my opinion have disappeared to the gods of greed, supremacy, and war.

I am fighting to regain a country that I can be proud to call my home.

So, what am I fighting for?

• I am fighting for the rights of children to be educated in a system that supports teachers and supports learning, which does not always mean teaching to the tests, and does mean incorporating arts into the process of learning, because the arts teach us how to be human.
• I am fighting for the rights of women to achieve all their goals, be payed equally, and have nobody intruding on their rights over their own bodies and medical decisions.
• I am fighting for the rights of all races, to not have to live in fear of being thrown out of the country for not having their papers, or to be shot down for the color of their skin without justice being served.
• I am fighting for the rights of the unemployed who got trapped in a system that values money over individuals and now face the reality that greed controls whether or not jobs are created.
• I am fighting for victims of bullying everywhere, including those who have been bullied by our country. Right now I don’t think the US holds any moral right to judge anybody, when day by day someone attempts to strip rights from someone else in the name of  ”God” or children commit suicide because society supports and models a system where the bullies have the power.
• I am fighting for equality. For gay, straight, transgender, black, white, brown, asian, rich, poor, male, female, atheist, Jew, Christian, Buddhist, undecided . . . the one thing that seems to get lost in all the bickering is that fact that we are ALL HUMAN!
• I am fighting for the future of our planet. I don’t care how much money gets made or spent, if we don’t find alternative solutions to energy and a kinder way to treat our planet, even the richest will fall victim to their own greed. The ultimate power here is mother nature, not human kind.
• I am fighting for the right of every individual to have quality affordable health care, and to have access to life-saving medicine without lining the pockets of the wealthy.
• I am fighting for the right to live and think and be free in a country that is supposed to have been built on the premise of freedom.

So Mr. Biden, I can’t answer your question with one statement of a bottom line issue. The craziness of this country right now cannot be boiled down to one campaign issue, because each of them affect the others. We cannot be a free country if money controls power. We cannot be a free country if one attitude toward religion dominates all, or religion plays a role in politics. We cannot be a free country if men control women. We cannot be a free country if everyone does not get treated equally. That is my bottom line.