When did vote become a four letter word?
Lately, I have noticed something. Talking about voting has started to feel like saying a bad word out loud. Something to whisper. Something to keep off the table, out of the shop, and away from polite company.
I have felt that pressure myself. And it lit a fire in me.
So I sat with it. I reflected on where it comes from. We are living in a time of deep division. The climate is charged, and the stakes feel high for all of us. I understand why so many people want to keep politics in a separate room.
But elections have always been the time I feel most connected to my rights. And sitting with all of this stirred up something else in me. Another right I hold close. The freedom to speak.
The Women Who Spoke Before Me
I did not get here alone. Every time I speak, I am standing on the shoulders of women who refused to be quiet.
Florence Nightingale is where it begins for me, as a nurse. During the Crimean War in the 1850s, she noticed that far more soldiers were dying from preventable disease than from their wounds. She did not just say so. She proved it, with data and some of the earliest statistical charts of their kind. Her work helped change how medicine thinks about hygiene and prevention. Had she stayed quiet, where would we be?
The women of the suffrage movement came together and demanded to be heard. Their decades of work led to the 19th Amendment in 1920, which wrote into the Constitution that the right to vote cannot be denied because of sex. My right to vote exists because they would not stop.
Gloria Steinem and the women of the 1960s and 1970s built on that foundation. They educated, organized, and spoke up. She died this September, at 92. I felt that loss. She helped create a world where I have a voice and a seat at any table. That is not something I take lightly.
Rights Are Never Finished
Here is what history keeps teaching me. Rights that took generations to win are not set in stone. They can be challenged. They can be taken back. Women’s rights are being challenged again today, and things that once seemed impossible are happening.
That is exactly why voting matters. It is how we stay part of the conversation.
So no, vote is not a four letter word. It is not something to whisper or avoid at the dinner table. It is one of the most powerful words we have.
Part of My Awakening
I know I will not please everyone. I have made peace with that.
What I share here is part of my awakening. Reaching the middle of my life has stirred something in me. A rumble. A rising. A desire to educate, to empower, and to remind you and myself that we must keep speaking up and keep showing up.
This is my platform. My dream. My legacy. I intend to be heard, and to say the things I have been encouraged to hush. Because silence and complacency will not move any of us forward.
My Message Is Simple
You have the right to vote. Your voice matters, and it needs to be counted.
This midterm election will help decide who holds power, and how the checks and balances that protect all of us are kept. Whatever you believe, please be part of it.
If you live in New York:
- October 24: last day to register to vote
- October 24 to November 1: early voting
- Tuesday, November 3: Election Day
Find your voting sites at elections.ny.gov. Outside New York, visit vote.gov.
And if my voice is not for you, that is okay. You can leave anytime. No hard feelings, only love.
Go gracefully. 🤍
References
NY1. (2026, September 3). Gloria Steinem, a potent voice of U.S. feminism and co-founder of Ms. magazine, dies at 92. https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2026/09/03/gloria-steinem–a-potent-voice-of-us-feminism-and-co-founder-of-ms–magazine–dies-at-92
