By: Luisa Blue, BSN
As a nurse, I have had the privilege to care for patients and help them get better. Few things are more rewarding, which is why so many of us who want to help others are drawn to a career in healthcare.
My nursing code of ethics calls for me to “practice with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person” — an oath I have taken to heart since graduating with my nursing degree.
As a first-generation Filipina-American, my career choice was an extension of how my parents raised me: to contribute to the society and country that gave them a pathway to citizenship so they could become proud Americans.
The America my parents came to allowed them to achieve the American Dream. So imagine my shock and surprise at the hate that has been leveled at families such as ours in this election year, including references by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to Filipinos as “animals” and “terrorists.”
Unfortunately, we shouldn’t be shocked. Republicans have long used anti-immigrant rhetoric to generate support in the base of the party, rather than propose real solutions that make our whole country stronger.
Imagine for a moment, an America where President Trump can institute his draconian ideas. Immediately, 45,000 Filipinos who have benefitted from DAPA/DACA, would have to leave, as would many pinoy doctors and nurses who make up one-third of our nation’s health care workforce at our nation’s understaffed hospitals, and dedicated home care workers who care for seniors and the disabled so they can live in their homes with dignity.
The possibility of a President Trump and his divisive agenda is all too real. This is why for working Filipino families the 2016 election is the most consequential of our lifetime. The stakes couldn’t be higher or the contrasts starker.
This year, Filipino-Americans and other Asian American Pacific Islanders who make up nine percent of Nevada’s electorate, can decide who will be our next president. Nine percent may not sound like much, but four years ago President Obama won Nevada by less than seven percent. Our votes have the potential to swing this election.
Unlike Trump, Hillary Clinton understands the importance of building bridges to join people together, not building walls to keep them out. She believes in commonsense immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for 11 million aspiring Americans to keep families together so they can build better futures. More than ever we need a president who will fight for the rights of immigrant families, and Hillary has stated time and again she will make immigration reform a priority in the first 100 days of her presidency.
She will also fight for an economy that works for all AAPIs, work to close the gender-based wage gap, raise the minimum wage and invest in technology and innovation so our children will have every opportunity to achieve their potential — issues that matter to all working families.
Anti-worker policies both in Nevada and nationally have created a country with a shrinking middle class and many more families struggling for economic security. Hillary Clinton and Nevada Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto are leaders for working families who will fight for higher wages and the right for working people to have a voice on the job in a union.
With the remaining three weeks until this election, we need to unite behind the candidates who will fight for raising incomes, quality and affordable education and expanded access to healthcare – like Hillary Clinton for President and Catherine Cortez Masto for U.S Senate, herself a daughter of immigrants. The 150,000 eligible Filipino-American voters in the Silver State should elect Hillary, Catherine and all who will represent us.
The choice is yours — two visions, two futures. On November 8, only one will make us stronger together.
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Luisa Blue, BSN, is Executive Vice President of SEIU, the nation’s largest healthcare union, and a Filipina American nurse who helped to found the SEIU Nurse Alliance. She is one of the highest-ranking AAPIs in the labor movement and joined the union in 1977 by organizing her workplace.
