Yesterday I cast my vote for Hillary Clinton. I am disclosing my vote, which I usually do not, for two reasons. First, as my own immediate and extended family has become more international than ever before, I don’t wish to see our nation more divided by ethnic strife. We should take advantage of our cultural diversity, not be afraid or shrink from it. (Yo no tengo miedo cuando oigo los idiomas que no entiendo. 私たちは一緒に強いです。)

Second, I have a dear friend who has two daughters who will come of age as young women during the tenure of the next president. I cannot abide the thought of them reaching maturity knowing that the president of the United States thinks of them as chattels, to be used and discarded. We are better than that.

Every member of our society deserves to be respected, heard and lifted up by both rhetoric and action. The alternative of a dog eat dog, we versus them, devil take the hindmost nation will lead us only to despair and bitterness, which is not what I want for my children, my friend’s children or yours.