Dear Bernie Sanders,

I hope this letter finds you well & in good spirits — although, I understand that this may be a lot to hope for, given the amount of media pressure & slander that you are usually facing, particularly in these last few weeks. Anyway, I suppose that I should introduce myself…

My name is Millions — you remember me, don’t you? Not too long ago — although, it seems sometimes to be a lifetime — you invited me (& a few dozen friends) to believe that a better world was possible & you told us that we could all help build it, too. I must admit that I had a hard time believing all that, at first — this is because I’ve always been taught that the world was basically doomed and that there was nothing that people like me could do to change it. And, when I looked around me & I saw the endless war over an exhausted & plundered earth, I thought, “the world does seem doomed” — when I saw my generation shackled with infinite debt by the greed of faceless, invisible, & unaccountable rulers, unmoved by the poverty of our children, I thought, “they’re right — how could I ever change this? I’m too small.”

The politicians are always reading speeches from their teleprompters that say they’re going to fix it & they’ve always got some bold, new plan for “change” or “hope” or “greatness” or something silly like that — but all I ever see is more of the same or worse. Those are the “choices” that my generation is always given — either vote for Mr. More-Of-The-Same or Mr. Worse. We always get screwed & that’s why no one really votes in the USA anymore.

But you don’t seem like a politician to me, Bernie.

My name is the Future. You might’ve seen me at some of your rallies — I went to every one of them. I was wavering in the air among the 28k who saw you in Portland, I blew a kiss at you from the crowd in Boston, I was the little bird that perched upon your podium, & I was beating inside every chest when you spoke in Oakland.

I’ve learned that I am not alone — not at all. And I’ve learned that it’s not me who is small — it is this system & its capacity to change that is small. It is politicians, like Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump, that are small — they’re small because the amount of good they want to do is small. They’re small because their desire for change is small. They’re small because they imagine only the smallest possibilities. And they want to sell our world & our future for such a small price.

But they won’t succeed because — together — our thirst for change is greater.

My name is not important because this is not about me — not me — us! I am writing to thank you for helping us to believe that a better world is possible and this belief is so valuable that our debt could only be truly repaid in one way — by acting on that belief & bringing it to completion. You’re a very smart guy, Bernie — I trust that you know where this is going…

Our name is Victory. We have overcome the small beliefs of party-politics. We have outgrown the small-minded & fear-driven system that we were born in — and, just as the flower must first break open the seed that carried it, so we must rend the husks of oligarchy so that we can stand up beneath the better sun of a better world.

There is nothing that Donald Trump can threaten us with that would be worse than re-entering the petty cage of the establishment’s politics.

There is no concession or promise Hillary Clinton could possibly make that we could trust. And there is nothing that you — that’s right, Bernie, even you — could say that could shake our resolve. I’ll say it once & I’ll say it for good —

we will not vote for her.

But you know that already. And I am not writing to you to tell you things that you already know — I’m writing to you to repay the debt I owe you. Just as you once invited us, we are now inviting you to believe — to believe, not only in a better future, but that the power to create that future is within us. And that it is in our hands — not later, not incrementally — but now.

Now, come & follow us — to Philadelphia & beyond.

In solidarity,

#NotMeUs

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