Dear Citizens of the United States of America,
I am a fifteen-year-old girl who is a spectator in this election, for I am unable to vote due to my age which is why I write this to you.
On November 4th, 2008, you will be deciding the future of our country. When you elect our next president of the United States, you are not only choosing the individual who will lead our country for the next 4 (maybe 8) years, but you are deciding what the future of our country is going to be like; how our country will change, or won't. This election is not a matter of gender, race, age or religion, this is a matter of we as Americans understanding that we can no longer sit by as spectators and allow leaders such as George W. Bush to command our country.
You are my voice; you are not just deciding our country's future, you are deciding the path that our country will head down; creating consequences that my generation may be faced with if you do not chose the right path. Thus, you must choose the leader who embodies the paramount qualities in leading our country in the right direction.
Two tickets, two choices for the next commander-in-chief. Senator Obama and Senator McCain both offer different opinions about the ways our country can be led. However, is Senator McCain's strategy for leading the country truly different from the current Bush administration that has brought our country so near to economic depression? Does Senator McCain truly have our country's best interests at heart, when he could choke on a chicken bone and put our country in the hands of a woman who just got her passport eighteen months ago, and bases her entire foreign policy experience on that fact that Russia is near Alaska? Is this truly what our country has come to, choosing a vice president by a last minute "Hail Mary"? It truly frustrates me because I believe I probably care more about this election and know more about it and what is at stake than a majority of the people in this country, and I can't cast a vote.
Senator McCain does not see the world through my generation's eyes. He is a man who lives in his past, constantly referring back to his times in war. I wonder if he really knows the lifestyles of people my age? Can he possibly understand the large role technology plays in our lives, does he himself actually know and use this technology, and does he comprehend the impact it is already having on the world and the even greater impact it will have in the future? Senator McCain may have experience from his past, but he does not have knowledge of the present and has not described a CLEAR vision for the future.
Senator Obama, on the other hand, has a vision for this country and is aware that the consequences of decisions made now will be on the shoulders of my generation when it is our turn lead the country. Senator Obama is conscious of the future because, unlike Senator McCain, he has two young daughters who give him firsthand insight into what young people care about. He understands that the war in Iraq has brought this country into economic peril and with the new economic crisis on our hands, it is time to re-prioritize and bring our focus back to the needs of the people in our own country.
Many commentators have discussed that some people in this country, particularly older people who lived during a different time when there was much more of a racial divide in this country, may not vote for Barack Obama solely because he is half black and has an ethnic sounding name. This is sad to me, because most people in my generation are "color blind." This is a new world from the one that my parents and grandparents grew up in, a place in which we do not judge people based on the color of their skin, but only on who they are as people and on their character. We need a President who sees the world through my generation's eyes because this is the world that we will soon inherit and have to ourselves lead. We are the ones who will inherit the economic debt that the George W. Bush administration has currently left us in. We are the ones who will have to repair the rapidly deteriorating Earth, and we are the ones who will have to deal with the consequences of two mismanaged wars.
In any event, I implore you to think of your children, your grandchildren and their children when you step into the voting booth on November 4th. Put aside all your biases, stereotypes and prejudices and pull the lever for Barack Obama as our next president of the United States of America. Do it for me, and other kids like me, who have been actively engaged in this election, but who cannot actually vote. Be our voice and our proxy, so that in the coming years we will not be overwhelmed by the mistakes of your generation once again. More than ever, this election is about the future; my and my sister's future, my friends' future, your children's future and your grandchildren's future. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, we need to recognize the "fierce urgency of now."
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Cassie Goldring