This election, let's vote for the future of our children

Carlos Martinez, Brigadier General, USAF, (Ret)

Brigadier General Carlos Martinez | La Voz

I was born in Havana and came to the United States with my family when I was very young. We settled in Miami and before Fidel Castro took control of Cuba, we would go there on vacation to see family. After 1959, the family began to come to Miami, not for vacation, but to escape the country in which they could no longer live. Some would stay with us for a few days only. Others had to live in our house until they could settle in their new country. Little by little, they all found work and were able to establish their own homes in their new country.

This story is one that many Cubans know well—the need to start their lives over in a strange place. What they all had in common was that they had to leave everything behind, arriving here with nothing more than what they could carry in their hands. But, thanks to the riches of this country and the freedom they found here, they were able to survive their expulsion from their homeland and start new lives.

This same story has been repeated many times by immigrant groups from around the world, many of whom come here as refugees from poverty, war, hatred, crime and torture. The Statue of Liberty has always served as a beacon to guide them to a place where they could find a better life. For many years I lived on the outskirts of this nation's capital. In our neighborhood there were Vietnamese, Syrians, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Nigerians and many more. They all came here because the United States has always been the best place on the planet to live and raise a family.

As Americans, we have enjoyed freedoms in this country that were absent in the countries from which we came. Here, we can freely and peacefully assemble to express our discontent with government policies and actions. Here, we can vote without fear of government intimidation or retaliation. Here, we have never feared violence from roving bands of armed civilians who support extreme views. Here, we know that the military's mission is to defend the nation and not merely carry out the government's orders. And here, we know that the rule of law is supreme, that we can count on the legal system to support and defend our rights and not be used as another tool of the government to suppress dissent.

Today I fear that these times are coming to an end. Today we have a candidate for President who calls immigrants from south of our border criminals, who previously as President did not want to allow refugees from Syria to escape the war, and who considered all Muslims to be enemies of this country. With his words and actions, he has continued to inflame hatred against immigrants and people of color, which has sometimes resulted in the deaths of innocent people. Furthermore, this candidate greatly appreciates tyrants like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung-un, and Xi Jinping. He wants to be like them and has even joked that he might be president not just for another four years, but possibly eight or twelve more years. He recently said that if he is elected President, he will be a dictator on the first day of his presidency (but for one day only). And he has also promised that after he is elected, our citizens will not have to vote again. Like the tyrants he admires, he wants to use his Justice Department for his own benefit and has promised to pardon the people who committed the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Finally, as dictators always do, this Presidential candidate has told thousands of lies over the past few years to deceive the public.

One of the lies now being told to scare voters is that Vice President Harris and the Democrats are socialists who are going to establish a socialist, communist dictatorship like Cuba or Venezuela in this country. The truth is that Democrats have always supported a capitalist economy. This lie is intended to confuse and deceive the public. This is the same public that appreciates the social programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Affordable Care Act that Democrats support and want to expand. Expanding these programs to benefit more people is what Democrats want to do, not establish a socialist economy or a communist dictatorship.

I fear that if people do not wake up and recognize Trump as the would-be dictator he really wants to be, this nation may well cease to be the last refuge we can count on. The truth is that there is no other country in the world to which we can flee. This is "the last stop on the train."

So, this election season, don't stay home. Get out and vote as if your future and the future of our sons and daughters depend on your vote and do what I will do: give Kamala Harris your vote for President.