Bernie Sanders--I'm in.

Bernie Sanders announced his run for presidency and I'm in.
I'm in, not because I have always wanted to be a socialist---which I remember when I was young hearing the actual definition and not really understanding why it was such an evil thing, but accepting that everyone else must be right. 
I'm in, not because I have a problem with a female president--I would be in if it was Elizabeth Warren also.
I'm in because the words coming out of his mouth match the votes coming out of his work in congress.
I'm in because he is still fighting for the people he represents and not wealthy, corporate donors that want one more vote to do the thing that hurts the regular people while ensuring ongoing power and money flow to those that already have plenty of both.
I'm in because I promised myself that if there was a candidate that was not the same ole-same ole politician, read--"snake oil salesman", I would do my part. 

So, I'm in.

And I'll be annoying a lot of friends and relatives with my inability to avoid religion and  POLITICS for the peace of family gatherings.  I'll be beating whatever drums I can find.  I am going to stay true to what I believe and share that---because the land of my birth and 14 generations of ancestors and all the descendants I have, is currently being threatened by greed and corruption and bigotry and hate. 

I want to be part of the solution, and the solution is not to roll over while we return to a feudal system with rich land owners and power monger and poor peasants that work  constantly to live their short, brutal lives.  I don't want to live through a French revolution or A Russian revolution or A Chinese revolution--all brought on by systems in which the rich and powerful thought it was all right to treat everyone else as if they were disposable assets whose purpose it was to make those rich folks lives easier.

I am not a bit player in my own life drama.  My life matters.  And everyone currently in prison for bad choices they made trying to deal with their own hopelessness and poverty, their lives matter, and everyone currently homeless because the system allows for that, and everyone that is ridiculed for using SNAP because minimum wage won't pay for food and a place to live and a way to get to work and school supplies and daycare, they matter.  Every person that wants to further their education but can't go to school and work fulltime, everyone that wants to get an education in a field that is so undervalued that the salary won't pay the student loans, their lives matter.  And every young man of color that has been pulled over for looking suspicious and been disrespected or pistol whipped or shot for talking back or not moving fast enough--their lives matter. 

Look around you.  If you can see anything that is not fair;  if opportunities for self-improvement are not within the grasp of someone your care about because your own family is not successful and powerful; if you are afraid for you offspring in the current climate, or for the safe retirement of your parents or for yourself,  you too know it is time to fix the problems. 

There is still time.  There is still hope.  But turning off the news is not the answer.  Ostriches don't really stick their heads in the sand, but humans that are scared definitely do.

Be Brave.  Vote for Bernie.