Category: Obama

change, education, election, government, Obama, President, vote

Why I vote

Christa Avampato

I had dinner over the weekend with a friend of mine who said that the person who is elected the next President of the United States will not be able to do anything to help our problems. He thinks we’re too far in trouble to be helped. In fairness, this friend is infamous for stating his opinion as fact (borrowing a phrase from my pal, Kelly) and he’s not American. He’s also facing a lay-off by his company that will likely send him back to his home country. He’s understandably angry and disappointed. And he doesn’t understand what it means to be an American. He doesn’t appreciate or understand how every vote by every citizen in this country makes a difference. 


I was a little miffed by my friend, the defeatist, though it has had me thinking very hard about why I vote and why I encourage others to vote. Right now, at this very moment, at every moment, people around the world are fighting for the right to vote. And I understand that passion but that’s not why I vote. Our economy is in shambles and our foreign relations are at an all-time low. I understand that we are in dire straights. But that’s not why I’m getting up at 5:30am and running to the polls tomorrow.

There were federal policies in place in the 1990’s that helped me put myself through college. Without them, I could never have become a college graduate, much less a graduate of a top academic institution. And as hard as Penn was for me, both personally and academically, my 4 tough years there changed my life. They opened up an entire world to me that I never knew existed. My future is shaped every day by what I learned and the people I met in that small area of West Philadelphia. And I had the great privilege of being there because people went to the polls on election day to put someone in the Oval Office who understood that equal access to education, regardless of socio-economic level, is critical to the future of this nation. Those voters and the policies they helped to put in place gave me a shot at a better life.

I vote to return the favor for so many people in this country who need my voice now more than ever. And they need your voice, too. Please vote. If you need to find your polling location, please visit http://www.voteforchange.com.
election, hope, Obama, politics

What Obama means to me

Christa Avampato

I am one of those people that Barack Obama talks about all the time – I am frustrated and disheartened by politics. I feel let down by our government and its officials. I’ve long thought that there is nothing that any politician can do that would get me to believe again in our government. For me, business has been the answer. A free market economy can do much more for peace and prosperity than any government. Until now. 


Usually I don’t write about politics on this blog, though I think by my expressed beliefs and opinions it is obvious that I am a liberal. Until this year, I have never belonged to a political party and I have never made a political donation. After 8 years of watching us go down the wrong path in every area: education, healthcare, foreign relations, the economy, the environment, I couldn’t be an “NE” anymore and there’s no way I could ever be a Republican. 

So I became a Democrat and I voted for Hilary Clinton in support of a woman whom I very much believed would fix healthcare, an issue that I have grown increasingly passionate about since my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer nearly two years ago thanks to advanced technology that found the smallest of tumors and treated it effectively. 

I have always liked Barack Obama; I have read his books, and now that he is the nominee, I support his efforts whole-heartedly, with my money, with my writing, and with my time. After hearing his speeches, I cannot help but feel hopeful, and it has been so long since I felt that sense of hope in our government that I barely recognized it when it hit me.  

I believe that he is like the greatest of stage directors – honest, passionate, and unifying. He listens and speaks with conviction, not stating opinion as fact but making his case to bring seemingly disparate parties together. He’s decent and fair to the point that he softened the sharp edge I develop every time I hear the word “politics”. He makes me feel like we can and will be safe in this uncertain world. I feel his energy through the TV and in the people who support them. He may be our first President in a very long time who gets that leadership is about service, not ego. 

He has already moved mountains by motivating millions of people like me around the world to get interested again in our government and the people who run it. And if he can do that, imagine what he’ll be able to do as our Commander in Chief? To me, he is a rock star in every good sense of that word. He makes me proud and optimistic, and in this day and age that is exactly what we all need.