The weekend before Christmas I had the unfortunate experience of going to the Mall in Manchester. I was looking for a specific present and found myself going into a number of stores to try to find it. While I wasn’t successful, one thing stayed with me. As I went from store to store, retail worker after retail worker told me how much they liked my Bernie button.

This is what inspires me about Bernie Sanders – everyday people really appreciate him and know that he stands up for them. I saw it that Saturday in December and I saw it when I worked in Vermont decades ago. People from all walks of life like Bernie. We recognize his honesty and his genuine commitment to making things better. It’s not only what Bernie Sanders promises to do if elected, it is what he expects of all of us – that we are in this together and together we can win significant change in our country: fair and livable wages, health care (not health insurance), extending our free public education system to the college level, and enhancing and protecting our Social Security system. He believes that we can and should choose diplomacy over war and people over corporations.

There are a lot of great choices for those of us voting in the Democratic primary on Feb. 11. If you are still undecided, take a hard look at Bernie Sanders and think about how much better our country could be.

JAN SCHAFFER

Warner