Women gained the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the nineteenth amendment. Women gained a major legislative victory in 1973 with the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision. Women have been fighting in the streets in their own homes and in the courts for basic rights. The right to vote, the right to equality in the work place, the right to equal pay, the right to autonomy over our reproductive systems.

Many women democrats, some men as well, have vocally stated they will not vote for Barack Obama should he be chosen/anointed the democratic nominee. Instead they will vote for John McCain the Republican nominee. I am to this day an avid supporter of Hillary Clinton, yes I am a woman, but I am proud to say that had nothing to do with my choice of presidential candidates. It was a nice perk but that is the only import I gave Senator Clinton's gender. Recently many women are undergoing their own personal battle of whom they will vote for should Hillary Clinton not be the nominee. I decided to step back and examine some things, although my personal choice has been clear for sometime now.

I firmly and ardently believe in a separation of church and state. The Republicans, in general, rather espouse church dictating legislation. Most Republicans wear religion on their sleeve like some people wear cuff links or a bracelet. Personally that nauseates me. John McCain has differentiated himself from the Republican base on this subject. He sees his religious beliefs as something personal and not a public forum or what should be the sole guide for public policy. I am eternally grateful to Rev. Jeremiah Wright for making the true racist anti-American theology more public. Racism on any level must never be tolerated in the United States, much less the White House.

We come to the issue of foreign affairs. I think everyone has a different view on this issue, but "carrots and sticks", per Barack Obama, is not hor d' oeuvres I think need to be served to Iran via the President of the United States. I think we need a president that can return our international standing, a standing of strength not a standing of cowardliness, not a nation of giveaways. A nation with a leader that seeks to put America and the American people first.

When it comes to our energy crisis or non energy crisis depending on whom you are speaking to, I believe we need to start at home with alternative energies before drilling more including off shore platforms or building nuclear power plants that create waste for the following generations to be forced to deal with. John McCain and myself as well as many Democratic women do not agree on this issue. It is a very divisive issue with many different views and in the end it should be the people that decide not any president or legislator. We as Americans do know how to vote.

Then we come to the right to freedom of choice. I vocally and firmly believe no legislator has any right to what happens in my or any other woman's uterus. Regardless of what their biblical or theological beliefs state. They have every right to raise their children with their beliefs, no one has the right to force their religious doctrine or beliefs on anyone else. Quashing a woman's right to choice is nothing but blatant religiously motivated legislation. This is a battle women have waged for years and it is a battle we will not abandon. It must be understood, this is one issue it is not THE issue. John McCain and myself as well as the majority of Democratic women do not agree on this issue, but then again it is one issue and it is not THE issue. I do not mean to demean men with the above statement, but please understand. American men enjoy unquestioned autonomy over their bodies, women have fought for this right to choice for years for generations and will continue to fight for our right to choice. American women are fortunate that there are many men who have joined us in this fight, I for one thank you all.

Having pondered these subjects of which I feel very strongly about, as do many other women. Having spent hours talking to women across this great nation of ours the threat to vote for a Republican candidate comes, for women, with a very very high price tag. As women we face new Supreme Court Justices who could be right wing zealots. Lets not kid ourselves here. John McCain named the justices he did not like recently at the Saddleback Forum. Every justice he named are the only justices I think are worth a spit. What could this mean to women?

It means, should John McCain be our next president, our fight will continue, but it was never over and our fight may become more difficult. It means things we have recently taken for granted as moving in the right direction will either stagnate or could move backwards. A vote for John McCain will mean women will have to continue to fight we will have to stay organized and we will have to be much more vocal. Not organized as women's groups but rather as part of a larger picture. Groups that are all inclusive but support the same agenda. It will mean legislatively that our equality and personal rights agenda could be set back 20+ years. All of this considered why are we, women by the hundreds of thousands, willing to cast a ballot for a Republican that does not support our agenda?

The answer is really quite simple, America. We, American women, with all of our hearts minds and bodies believe in America first. We believe in the sacrifices of our husbands, friends, neighbors, companions and children on the field of battle although we may not support or believe in the war itself. We believe and hold dear the many great sacrifices of our fore mothers and fore fathers. We believe in something that is much greater than our individual selves....We believe in our country. The inner strength it takes for a woman to cast a vote that may be against herself and her gender to instead vote for the strength and security and sovereignty of this country is perhaps one of the greatest displays of patriotism I have seen in my lifetime. It is the American Identity of genuine Democratic women.

I do not mean to diminish the patriotism of men in anyway. When you step back men are voting for a president, they lose or gain little or nothing personally other than a president. Women face personal sacrifices, personal challenges, personal intrusions. We face watching the battles we have fought for so many years and gained so much ground potentially wash away with a presidential vote. Yet I have no doubt when the cold winds of November blow Democratic American women will vote against themselves and instead cast their vote FOR America and America's sovereignty.

I predict Barack Obama, should he be the nominee, and the DNC will hear the ROAR of Patriot Democratic women in November. It will be a roar that will echo in their ears as John McCain takes the oath of office. It will be a roar they will never forget and as each of these nominee anointing super delegates comes up for re-election, they too will be deafened by our roar.

I am proud to be a Patriotic Democratic Woman, who can not and will not vote for Barack Obama.