Use the power of the ballot to do good and fight ignorance

Editor:

I have always thought very proudly of myself as an educator. Although I was only a teacher by trade for 16 years, deep down inside I have always been and always will be a teacher.

As you mature and evolve into an adult with a compassion for shared learning experiences and a commitment to fostering academic excellence in your students you are constantly invigorated by their successes, as well as their challenges. It is truly the greatest profession to which you might aspire; it is an honor to be an educator.

I mention this not that the intent of this letter is to be about me, but it is about how truly valuable a quality educational experience is at any level, in any community and at any time in history.

Very sadly and very honestly when I awoke the morning of November 9, 2016, I was overcome with the realization that the public educational system of the United States had failed us. And I felt guilty and ashamed because despite our best efforts to educate and enlighten our students; ignorance had won, and America had lost.

It is inconceivable to me that any woman could have voted for POTUS in 2016 or could so again in 2020 as he is a misogynist who treats women as chattel. In the same way, I cannot believe that any African American or member of any ethnic minority group could support him knowing that he is a racist autocrat who has put your children in cages and unapologetically embraces radical White Supremist terrorists like the Proud Boys.

Although I had not been a teacher for quite some time, in 2016 I felt personally guilty that the national electorate had failed our nation and elected a President who lacks integrity and dishonors the truth with impunity.

It does not take a constitutional scholar to know that this man was not who our Founding Fathers had envisioned in their design of this great nation.

Socrates, who was among the greatest of the Ancient Greek philosophers, believed that knowledge was the ultimate virtue, best used to help people improve their lives. He wrote that “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.”

It is imperative today and always that we use our gift of the ballot for good and be proud that as an educated populace we are empowered to reject the evils of ignorance; even when found in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

RBG ut vos RIP.

Doug Miller

Albion