Kristin Reisch

Our votes are our voices and an investment in the future. I am investing my vote in Jill Stein.

Jill Stein believes that the earth is in a crisis that can no longer be ignored. She supports transitioning to clean, renewable energy with jobs creation by 2030. This may sound like too big of a reach, but we are living in a time where technology is more advanced than ever, where communicating across oceans is as simple as across the street, and where ideas and innovation have more opportunity to be shared and grown. Given those assets there is no reason to think incrementally, instead we need to think big and act now. We have exactly one environment to live in, if we do not make it our priority our grandchildren will pay far too great a price for our carelessness.

Health care is not a human right in this nation. Jill Stein wants to change that. Too many families in this nation choose between groceries and co-pays, too many seniors choose between heat and needed medicine, too many adults choose between rent and preventative care. The daily cost of no or inadequate health care to our citizens is far too great. We can, like every other nation that provides single payer health care, eliminate the high costs by ending the bureaucracy of private insurance and by regulating the pharmaceutical industry.

Today individuals can donate a maximum of $2,700 to political candidates for federal office, but corporations and Super Pacs (always with private agendas) can spend unlimited funds to support a candidate. Jill Stein wants to end this practice that hurts the individuals of this nation, but allows corporations too much power. Not only does she say she wants to end it, she practices this belief by only accepting donations from individuals. When there are no large corporate donations, there is no reason for corporate influence over policy decisions.

Will any of this be easy? Of course not, but are they worth the effort and the work? Absolutely yes. It is our obligation as citizens to use our votes thoughtfully and with great regard for how the winner of our votes will treat the human beings on this planet and the earth on which we live. I will cast my vote for the one candidate who demands we care for our environment and who demands equality for all citizens: Dr. Jill Stein.

Kristin Reisch is a mom, wife, slacktivist, activist, and is slowly remembering how to knit again.