And roaring I am this evening. I am ANGRY.

Those lyrics by Helen Reddy were an “enduring anthem for the women’s liberation movement.” They keep running through my mind this evening while I simmer over the latest propaganda from the Clinton campaign. Apparently, because Hillary Clinton and I both have XX chromosomes, I’m supposed to vote for her. Only for that reason, no other. I’m not supposed to use my intellect, my opinions, my values, or my goals in making my decision. Nope, I’m just supposed to fall in line, march-step with the other ladies of the US and vote for Clinton.

So, basically, as a woman, I’m not to be trusted with making my own decision, I just have to vote by gender?

It’s odd to me that this is the current line of thinking. Because I’m pretty sure that Alice Paul didn’t go on hunger strikes and sit in prison so I could place my vote without any thought put into it. And I really thought that Lucy Burns and many other women picketed the Wilson White House to prove that women were equal in intelligence to men and therefore should be given the right to vote for whomever they chose – but apparently I was mistaken.

Some say my stance on this issue is against feminism. I don’t see how it is – actually, to me the process of being an independent woman who has researched and listened to each of the delegates and came to my own conclusion on who to support, a conclusion I know is right, seems to me to be the epitome of feminism. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, “The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.” And I know the truth in this primary, even if Senator Clinton doesn’t. I know who this country needs and what this country can be again with the right leader. I know who to support and I didn’t need help from anyone figuring that out.

I would love to see a woman in the White House – and I think I will in my lifetime. But, she will be the first woman in the White House because she is honest, intelligent, real, diplomatic, and respected, just to list a few attributes. She will not be there just because she is a woman, just to prove a point, just because “it’s time.” It’s not anyone’s time unless they are the right candidate and Senator Clinton has clearly shown time and again how wrong she is for the job. Yes, women are just as capable as men at being President – but just like not all men should hold the office (current President included), not all women should hold the office either. No man should be President just because he’s a man and no woman should be President just because she’s a woman.

Now, for those of you out there who still support Clinton, fine, I’m not here to convince you otherwise (at least not in this thread, LOL). What I’m here to tell you is this: do NOT tell me I must vote for someone just because they share my gender. Because guess what – that’s sexism too. And I won’t stand for sexism, not matter what form it takes or from what direction it comes.

I thank and admire Paul, Susan B. Anthony, Stanton, Burns, Mary Wollstonecraft, Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the hundreds of thousands of other women who came before me and paved the road for me. I thank them for fighting for the right for me to learn to read so I could make my own decision. I thank them for fighting for the right for me to vote so I could express that decision in this democracy. And I thank them for believing in me and every other woman so much that they didn’t tell us how to vote or how to choose a candidate – they knew we could do that for ourselves. Not only are we able to do that for ourselves, we should be allowed to do that for ourselves. And I’m not going to allow anyone to take that away from me, not even by trying to “shame” me into a vote for their candidate.

Oh, and Helen Reddy? “Apparently, she sent an e-mail to the Clinton campaign early on offering her involvement. The ‘enthusiastic’ response: ’I got a form letter back asking me for a contribution.’"

Yeah, now I KNOW I made the right decision.
And all on my little female own, imagine that!