To the Editor:

When a woman becomes president of the United States, she will be a Democrat. The same will be said for a president who is Latino or Native American or gay. I know this because, while it is the Republican Party that gives us women of the caliber of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann – not very often of the caliber of Margaret Chase Smith and Sandra Day O’Connor – it is the Democratic Party that regularly gives us women of the caliber of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Shirley Chisholm. It is the Democratic Party that recognizes, has confidence in, promotes and celebrates the diversity that is the strength of the United States of America.

Long ago, when I was an eighth-grader in Indiana, I wrote an English-class essay addressed as a “Letter to Uncle Sam.” In it, I praised then-President Dwight Eisenhower for the character, purpose and wisdom I believed he brought to a country still recovering from a massive “hot” war, involved in another-but-smaller one and confronted with a “cold” one. My teacher sent my essay to the president, and his press secretary responded with a letter that read in part, “Never has the President enjoyed a letter as much as he did yours,” and he sent an autographed picture of Eisenhower at his desk in the Oval Office. Those treasures thrilled an eighth-grader’s heart, as did the experience a few years ago of visiting the Eisenhower Library, standing by his grave, reading his words of wisdom enshrined on the walls.

It was when I was in college, however, that I knew I “am,” not “became,” a Democrat. I am because it is the Democratic Party whose philosophy, principles, policies and programs most match my own. It is the party that values and seeks to protect the working people; the average, special and extraordinary people; the people who need and seek to better their lives through educational institutions; the people who worship in a variety of ways; the people who commit their lives to public service in military and civil paths; the immigrants, except for Native Americans, we all are; the downtrodden, despised and discriminated against because of their national origin, race or skin color, religion or other creed, ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation.

So, again this year, I will vote for President Barack Obama. Although I believe in a vigorous, healthy, two-party system, I am confident it is Democrats who will continue to lead us to a better life, better because they seek to preserve, protect and defend those values of inclusiveness and diversity that have made this country great.

Karen L. Bosley

Long Beach Township