I was 9 years old when Donald Trump was elected as President of The United States. I was 13 when Joe Biden took his place. I am 17 years old now, and feel powerless knowing it is possible that come January when I turn 18, Donald Trump might be President again and I will have had no say in the matter whatsoever.

I was 9 years old when Donald Trump took office and only just a teenager when he claimed a fraudulent election  had tossed him out. I watched on January 6th as his supporters stormed the capital and now, nearing adulthood, watch him ramble, bicker, demean and hate every waking moment unabashedly and without consequence filled with an anger and fear that I have felt since the day of the insurrection.

Since I was 9 years old, the people I have cared about and loved have lived in fear every day because Donald Trump’s presidency has been a possibility. My aunt, afraid that her own marriage will be ripped from her because she is gay, friends who feared that their very identity would be deemed abominable because they are trans, girls – kids, no older than me – petrified that if they are raped, it is wholly possible that they will have to carry their abusers child to term; I have known it all and more.

My father, along with much of my family, is Mexican. I have watched Donald Trump call the people who gave me life dirty, criminal and disgusting and what makes it all worse is that I haven’t been able to do anything to defend the people I care about.

I am 17 years old and will not turn 18 until January of next year. It is possible by that time Donald Trump will be the President and it will stay that way for 4 long years.

By the end of those years, I will be 22. By the end of those years, gay marriage and education of gay history could be erased. By the end of those years, trans people who just want to be themselves and be comfortable in their own skin could be left entirely without protection from hateful, ignorant people who refuse to allow them to exist.

By the end of those years, friends of mine could be dead because they could not get a professional abortion, or they could have a child that they cannot support financially or emotionally. In 4 short years so many lives could be ruined and this election stands in the way of it.

If you have the power and privilege to vote that I do not, and you are choosing to use it on Donald Trump, understand this:

As a Republican: You are choosing a man who has been rejected by multiple credible and prominent members of his own party– including his own former Vice President– in the most powerful position of your party.

You are choosing to put a corporate conglomerate who opposed unions and blue collar workers rights into office. You are choosing to put someone in one of the most powerful seats in the world who puts the 1% before anyone else because he *is* the 1%.

As an American: You are choosing to put a great, fantastic sore loser into office. You are choosing to put the opposition of democracy itself in the position to remove it, tying a string around your rights as an American and hanging them in the balance. You are allowing a man who would happily make himself a tyrant become the President of The United States.

You are choosing to put a man who is losing what little political intellect he had to age, who lies and insults and ridicules blindly to cover up his own insecurities, talks himself in circles, never admitting that he lost, or was wrong, or made a mistake because his pride weighs more than any integrity he could hope to have and who openly aligns himself with dictators, to become the President.

More simply, you are choosing to make a weak, dishonest, insecure, power hungry man the face of our country. You are choosing to reject any ounce of patriotism you have in favor of a man who is anything but “American.”

Most importantly, as a person: You are choosing to put a rapist, sexist, racist, transphobe and homophobe in office. You are choosing to allow a man who openly befriended Jeffrey Epstein (a sex trafficking pedophile), had a public rape trial in which it was proven more likely than not that he was guilty and has time and time again shown that he does not care about you, your children, your siblings, your friends or your parents in the seat of President. If you fly a flag in support of Donald Trump you are insulting your own mother, sister, wife, girlfriend or friends. You are wearing the name of a man who sees you as a vote, a number, a tax – a chance for more power – on your sleeve for the world to see.

If you are voting for Donald Trump; if all that I have displayed is okay with you; if it bothers you not to support a proven rapist; if it does not trouble you to know that this man will take away the rights and freedoms of, if not you, your fellow Americans; if it does not weigh on your conscious in the very slightest, then I fear for you and your humanity.

If you believe that being gay is an abomination, being trans is unnatural, that abortion is immoral or that illegal immigrants are scum, I invite you to remember that humanity is a virtue and we all share it but when you refuse to acknowledge the humanity in others in favor of hatred you lose your own. If you are voting for Donald Trump, you lack humanity, empathy and understanding and to put it bluntly: I pity you.

I am 17 years old and will not turn 18 until January 16th of next year. This means I cannot vote. I cannot participate in the great American experiment that I learn about in my history classes. I cannot demonstrate my right to choose my representatives regardless of the fact that this election will undoubtedly change the course of my life as an American.

Despite this, I have had and worn proudly my right to free speech since the day I learned I had it, and I use it now to write to Donald, his supporters who convince themselves America was not great before and anyone with the privilege to vote and say this:

Donald Trump is a stain on the book of American history and to vote to put him into office is choosing to disavow the rights of Americans – people – across the country. To not vote at all is to stand idly by as a regime of fear, hate and ignorance continues. To vote against Donald Trump is to use your privilege to keep the freedom in America alive. Let the United States be a haven for progress, not a cage for innocent people who simply want to be free.

I was 9 years old when Donald Trump took office and I am now 17. Despite how young I was, I have despised him and all he stood for, for 8 long years. I cannot use my vote against him, but I will never allow my voice or the voices around me to be silenced under his incessant yelling and the words of his supporters.

I only hope approaching election day that my grievances and the grievances of the people I love and care for will be heard and recognized, and that my fellow Americans will keep Donald out of the white house. The soul of our country and all the work of Americans new and old rests upon this election.

A future of freedom and progress is not promised with Donald Trump in office. Be on the right side of history. If not for me, then for yourself, your peers and the people you love.