My face was used in a meme, and I am whole heartedly disgusted that someone would use my face, in a hate campaign.
Whether it is for fun, or for pushing their bigoted, ignorant, and sloppy agenda, I would like to respond to their memes of me.
I am a mother. I am not a meme. I am a veteran, and not someone's victim. I am a person and not a pawn. I willingly served in the United States Army, and would have willingly deployed to fight against any threat, be it foreign or domestic.
Trumps hateful rhetoric has emboldened the very worst of America's history...its propensity towards hate. We as a nation cling to ignorance before intellect. We run with hate speech before fact checking. We fear monger, instead of fighting for truth.
We have to stop Donald Trump and his followers from attempting to push fear and hatred throughout this country.
I am a black woman, that deals with racism, discrimination and hate on a regular basis. I have to constantly fight stigmas and stereotypes. I have to push back every fucking day of my life. What I won't do is allow someone to use my face, to push a message of fear and hate.
Our daughters, my sisters, should not fear being lead by Hillary Clinton. Brave women, like myself and other women fought and still fight to defend this country. We don't need to be drafted, because we willingly volunteer to serve our country. To protect our family, our communities, from any force that would seek to hurt them.
These brave women are already serving in intelligence, as doctors, as truck drivers, as mechanics, as heroes, who would willing lay down their lives in sacrifice to their country.
We are fearless. We are brave. We are willing to give to our nation. Not take away. Not perpetuate fear and push any idea that we are defined by only our gender.
We are so much more than being "daughters". We are brave. Our assigned gender has nothing to do with our capabilities and contributions to this country. Our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, our women, are not afraid of war. We have been fighting the war for equality, equal pay, equal rights, and equal access, every day since we were born. We were drafted when we were born to fight for the empowerment and strength of our sisters.
We are in this fight.
We will not ever give up. We will not ever be pushed down into submission, or silence. I don't need a meme to attempt to educate me, or attempt to instill fear inside of me. I am strong, and proud. I am not afraid, nor do I live in fear.
I reject the notion that I should fear fighting to protect my country. I am not a coward. I love this country, and fight for it everyday. I hope that my willingness, my service are respected, and not mocked. I refuse to be used as a pawn in a game of fear. I am not afraid today, or any day. I am a Daughter that refused to be drafted into the campaign of hate. I am not, and never was afraid.