Logan
Heiman
8 years ago, I was not old
enough to vote,
but I was a high school student with a voracious appetite for politics and a
deep love for the democratic process in the United States. I’ll never forget
how excited I was when the vice principal of my high school allowed me to take
not one but two afternoons off from school to see Michelle Obama and
then-Senator Barack Obama speak in my hometown of Beaumont, Texas.
I remember
sitting in my grandmother’s living room hugging her so tightly with tears
streaming down my face when NBC News anchor Brian Williams announced that
Barack Obama would be our 44th President of the United States. I’ll never
forget President-elect Obama proclaiming, “Change has come to America.
In the last
seven years, America has changed profoundly for the better because of President
Barack Obama. When President Obama took office in January 2009, America was losing 800,000 jobs a month. In the last 70
months, businesses have created over 14 million new jobs. When
President Obama took office, over 40
million Americans were living without health insurance, just one
illness away from disaster. Now, 17 million Americans have the coverage they need thanks to the
Affordable Care Act.
That’s just the
beginning of the progress we’ve made. Under President Obama, America has come
much closer to being a place that extends opportunity not just to a select few
but to people like me. President Obama, in his words and his actions, has
consistently sent the message that LGBTQ people, immigrants, African-Americans, Hispanics and Latinos,
Asian-Americans, women, and other traditionally marginalized people have a stake
in this country and that we deserve a place at the table.
I could not be
more proud to say that my very first vote was cast for President Obama on
November 6, 2012.
I’m proud of
the work he’s done to bring America closer to living up to its promise as an
inclusive society where everyone has the chance to live up to her or his
potential.
One year from
today, President Obama will end his term in office. This November, we will vote
for the 45th President of the United States. I want that president to protect
the progress President Obama has made in the last seven years. I believe that
president needs to be Hillary Clinton.
I believe Hillary Clinton will be the fighter and the
champion Americans need to continue building a society that’s based on
inclusiveness. Too many Americans are struggling
because their pay checks aren’t growing along with the economy. Hillary Clinton
has a plan to raise wages by encouraging
profit-sharing, enacting paid leave, and raising the minimum wage.
She’ll also
offer solutions to problems that don’t make the headlines but have tremendous
impact on regular Americans like the lead-poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan
and the opioid epidemic that is ravaging the lives of Americans of all
backgrounds. She will do what it takes to end the era of mass incarceration that
disproportionately hurts African-Americans. She has proven over and over
again a willingness to listen to the problems of Americans and then to craft
specific and comprehensive plans to address them.
Republicans are
fighting with everything they have to ensure that minorities are prevented from
exercising their constitutional right to vote. They don’t even acknowledge the
epidemic of police violence that has taken the lives of far too many,
particularly minorities, in this country. Republicans are fighting tooth and
nail to strip back marriage equality which is the law of the land. They are
doing everything they can to keep women from making their own choices about their
own health and bodies. Republicans are giving their all to ensure corporations
and the most well-off in society get to write their own rules while the middle
and working classes struggle without the same breaks that Republicans want for
America’s wealthiest. Worst of all, Republicans have tried over fifty times to
repeal Obamacare.
That’s not the
country I want to see and I believe Hillary Clinton has the strength and
experience that comes from fending off 25 years of vicious partisan attacks
against her by the Republicans. Her 11 hours of testimony before the Benghazi
committee last fall demonstrate that she can give as good as she takes.
We live in a
time of divided government and that’s not likely to change with the next
president. Hillary Clinton has the experience to forge consensus on
solutions to America’s most pressing problems that comes from 8 years as First
Lady and 8 years as Senator from New York. When cooperation isn’t forthcoming
from the Congress — they’ve become pretty good at the withholding part — Hillary Clinton will have the creativity and knowledge
necessary to use the powers of the Executive branch to make necessary progress
just as President Obama has done the last six years
Hillary Clinton
will bring not only experience and resilience to the Oval Office but also
compassion for the most vulnerable in society and an abiding faith in this
country. I am one of the 8 million kids who received
health insurance from the SCHIP program Hillary Clinton championed and helped
pass in the Congress when she was First Lady. And, when she was Secretary of State,
I had the chance to see her speak at an HBCU Foreign Policy Briefing at the
State Department which deepened my passion for the study and practice of
international affairs and encouraged me to gain my own international experience
which I did studying for a year in college in Istanbul, Turkey.
I believe
Hillary Clinton will secure and build on President Obama’s legacy at home and
abroad. She will have the experience needed to protect America from threats like ISIS without engaging
us in needless and destructive wars. She will use every tool America has to
preserve our standing in the world and forge coalitions to address global
problems like the dire threat of climate change. She’ll project American
strength abroad by cultivating a strong military but also by utilizing the
economic power we have and the dedication and expertise of our nation’s diplomats in the
Foreign Service and USAID.
Finally, it’s time we recognize a woman’s place is in the
White House. Hillary Clinton is not just any woman
but the right woman to lead our country in facing the challenges ahead. She
reminds me so much of the women in my life like my grandmother. My grandmother
is a woman who is tough but tender. She’s a woman who has fought unimaginable
challenges in life to make mine better. I see those qualities in Hillary
Clinton too. She is the grandmother everyone needs and she is the president
this country deserves. That’s why I’m with her
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