By Sulma Arias
07 Aug 2024, 06:42 AM EDT
I watched my daughter, Genesis Mercado-Arias, address five hundred immigrants who had just received their U.S. citizenship in Kansas City. She had been invited to speak to these “new citizens” because of her work as a lawyer, an advocate for new immigrants, and because of her work with women and girls abroad.
“As the daughter of a community organizer, I saw the power we have when we come together, to create a more perfect union, to stand up for what you believe is right,” Genesis told them. “Be bold in your dreams, courageous in your actions, and know that you are not alone on this journey. Your fellow citizens are standing by your side, ready to build a more perfect union together.”
My heart filled with joy. When I first set foot in the United States over forty years ago, I was a teenage refugee who had had to leave my war-torn homeland of El Salvador. I could never have imagined that a moment like this would come. The advances we make in life, as in our work, may sometimes seem small, but they are not insignificant.
She and we – all of us – are living proof that democracy is not just a dream. It is a living story that we can all build. However, democracy is something we must choose to build and then defend.
The November election is approaching, and I already know what is at stake for each of us, and for our nation. I think of my grandchildren, my three daughters, and the responsibilities we have to all those who are yet to come. We must ask ourselves, What can we do to help guide our nation’s history toward a better future for all?
This election seems especially clear right now, when one candidate, Trump, says he will jail and punish those who oppose him and take away the freedoms of women, immigrants and minorities. But this is not the first time our country has faced such deep divisions.
For me, the reason I am voting is clear. When I vote, I will vote to defend all we have accomplished over the past four years: We have an African American woman in the second highest elected office in the country. The 118th Congress is the most diverse in history, with 61 Latinos like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York, Delia Ramirez of Illinois, and Gregorio Casar of Texas, who together with other leaders of color help shape legislation as committee chairs. We have 149 women (the highest number ever) in Congress. Sixty-five percent of the federal judges President Biden has appointed are women.
We have the most diverse Cabinet in history, with four Latinos – Miguel Cardona, Alejandro Mayorkas, Isabella Casillas Guzmán and Xavier Becerra – in key positions. More leaders of color serve as Secretaries of Urban Development, Defense and more. And for the first time a Native American woman, Deb Haaland, serves as Secretary of the Interior.
All of this creates opportunities for us to advance progressive solutions like never before. While we still have much more to do, I will vote to defend and continue to build on what we have achieved.
Even if we weren’t in the room with the founders of this country when they wrote the Constitution, the advancement of Latinos and people of color in key positions like these helps us shape and govern this country toward a more perfect democracy where everyone can have a voice.
This is what we must choose: to defend our democracy, to refine it so that it works for the benefit of all. It all starts with our votes.
Sulma Arias, Executive Director of People’s Action and the People’s Action Institute, a network of community-based organizations in 38 states with more than one million members.