Since I live overseas, I applied for my Absentee Ballot while in the US during May and finally received it in the mail today.

Like many elections I’ve voted in, I find I am voting against someone, not really for a candidate. But this election has given me someone to vote against not just because of his policies, or I should say lack of any specific policies, but because “this guy”, as they would say in the neighborhood, is so despicable as a human being.

I know there are many who find his opponent untrustworthy but when I think not just of the future of the Supreme Court but of how the world, apart from Putin, would view the United States with a leader so unfit to govern, that I find there really is no choice but to add my vote to canceling out some misguided individual in New York who can’t accept the fact that the United States is no longer the country that was reflected in TV shows like Leave It To Beaver or The Ozzie & Harriet Show. There is no “taking back” of America. It has moved forward into the 21st Century just as it is meant to. It is a land of hope, equality, and freedom for all its citizens and those who come to its shores for refuge and better opportunities, just like my grandparents and all the other immigrants who sailed into its harbors or disembarked at its airports and yes, even walked across its borders. That is the greatness of America, not the picture painted by a racist, sexist narcissist.

There are problems in the US but they can only be solved by someone who understands they must bring people together, not push them apart.

There is no mystery in whom I am voting against. The only mystery to my way of thinking in how did this sleazy individual ever capture the nomination of a major party and be in a position to possibly govern a country that stands for everything he is not.

There are those of you who may disagree with me, which is your right in a free, open democracy. But it is because I believe in that free, open democracy that I will cast my vote against someone who seems to think belittling critics, demeaning opponents, disrespecting people of different races and religions, and preying on women is proper conduct. That is not only unacceptable in my eyes but downright immoral.

There is a place for people like him but it certainly is not as the head of state of the most powerful nation on earth. My grandfather, a naturalized citizen of the US, took pride in his right to vote in every election. I, too, take pride in that right and so do not want to waste my vote by abstaining. Instead I will  vote my conscience as I hope all citizens of whatever country they reside in will do.

And as they say at the end of every State of the Union Address and at ball games, too: God Bless America.