Register to Vote and Listen

Well, I made a mistake.

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New Year forecast for today, but I didn't.

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I scheduled it for next week.

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And since I keep forgetting to write

to my sub stack, I thought I would come

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on here and just say, It's Wednesday

and how are you doing in the world?

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How are you showing up in the world?

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I am really curious about what's going

to happen in this upcoming election.

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If you haven't been here in a while, I get

to work in child care and I work to build

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power by bringing parents and providers

together so that we can demand the child

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care system that we know we deserve.

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One where there's affordability

and accessibility for all parents,

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where all providers are thriving.

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And In order to do that, we know

that the system is set up on racist

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and sexist policies embedded for

hundreds and even thousands of years

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of bias and rules and things and

we have a lot to do to break that.

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So, we want our new system

to be based on a new route.

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anti racist, anti sexist, anti classist.

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And that takes a lot of work, and

it takes a lot of conversations.

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And one way we can show

our values is when we vote.

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And it's never perfect.

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No single candidate will ever represent

all of what is important to us.

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And there's a piece of understanding that

the United States government reinforces,

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for example, the two party system.

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The majority party is the one

who gets to set the agenda.

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And so a lot of times you're doing a power

analysis to see which elected officials

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are more amenable to your issues and

then choosing them, not because they're

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the greatest human, but because they

align closer to the values you hold dear.

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And then it is our job to hold

them accountable to either

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what they said, what we need.

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and certainly what we're striving for.

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So yesterday September 17th was

National Voter Registration Day.

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It's not too late.

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Check your voter registration.

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I'll put a link in the comments.

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And then I want you to

share it with five friends.

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And let's get bolder about

talking about our values.

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I've been talking for many years now

about the importance of how we have to

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have conversations with one another.

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And we have to really reach out

and listen, especially when we're

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talking to somebody and they're

sharing a piece of their story that

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We think they should just get over.

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This is hard.

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I certainly am not a prime example of that

when maybe it comes to my husband, right?

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Definitely want people to work

on their healing journeys.

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And then when we're looking at the

wider systemic challenges in our world,

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if you're feeling triggered, like

somebody should just get over a thing.

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That is your invitation to

step back and listen more.

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So let's listen more.

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Let's talk about our values and let's

make sure that we are working to elect

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people who closely align with our values

so that we can really build the world

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that we want, where our families can

thrive, where we have bodily autonomy,

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and where we can walk in any place

without fear because of the identity

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that we Have a great Wednesday and

I will see you on the other side.