brushfire"This, yes, this, it was always like this." -Stanley Koehler
REFLECTIONS OF AN EMPTY NESTER
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Who am I voting for? I am voting for my Hispanic and Latino students in my 5th grade classes, many of whom are still learning English, hailing from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. I am voting for them, in the hopes that they can live in a country where the fact that they are bilingual is not disregarded as un-American, but embraced as something to be valued, a skill that is seen as an asset and respected as something that makes them smart. I am voting for my refugee students, coming from countries in the Middle East, including Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and others from countries in Africa, including Zambia, the Congo, Ethiopia, and Cameroon. I am voting for them in the hopes that they will live in a country where their refuge is not seen as a problem for our country, but something to be celebrated, for it shows that they are safe. I want them to be viewed as survivors, who have every right to be here, and to be embraced as emblematic of America. I want them to have found a place of true religious liberty, a place that does not think that they and their families are the problem, but understands how they have been the very victims of that problem. I am voting for them to live in a country that does not contribute to the danger they left behind, a country that does not institutionalize, accept or contribute to profiling based on religion or the melanin of one's skin. I want them to live long, abundant, joyful lives, none cut too short from prejudice, guns, or fear. I am voting for all 48 of my students this election, who have made an incredible imprint on my heart through their joy, resilience, curiosity, smiles, and endless abounds of love. Although there is not a perfect presidential candidate, there is a clear and utter distinction between the candidate that will get us closer to the world I imagine for my students versus the candidate that would get us farther away than ever. Their futures are at stake. That is why #ImWithHer. #DedicateYourNoTrumpVote Somers Brush is a fifth-grade math and science teacher in Prince Georges County, Maryland and corps member of Teach for America.
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Mary Anne BrushJournalist, fiction writer, wife and mother |