I’m a moderate, pragmatic Democrat. Apparently that annoys Bernie supporters. I am not the Democratic establishment, although I have participated at the local and state level because I care. The Democratic party is messy, it is like herding cats, and it is not perfect. The policies of the Democratic administrations have benefited me over the course of my life. I will not begin to enumerate how now.

I remember what it was like to be a divorced, struggling mother with a small child. I remember charging her diapers on a small limited credit card each month while having to pay back student loans. I remember holding my breath wondering if a purchase would go through or if I had reached my limit. I remember that I could not afford to get Chinese food before she was born it was a luxury; but after she was born, I always found money to occasionally take her to her special place- McD, and later to the Varsity.

I remember struggling to make my house payments and car notes as I struggled in the lower middle class. I was never on welfare or subsidized housing, only by the grace of God, and remembering my mother’s words. My mother taught me very early in life as I watched her pinch pennies, that she never wanted us to be on welfare or in the projects because she “didn’t want to become complacent in a slightly better situation” than our Harlem apartment with roaches and rats. She and my father “scrimped and saved” and moved on up to a home in Queens. She didn’t lose that home when he died 7 months later and she became a single mother of three girls.

My mother took me with her to voting booths as I took my daughter, and instilled in me the importance of voting. My parents were Democrats who believed in the American dream despite all odds in segregated America.

My successes and failures are because of the sacrifices of my parents and of others, some with their lives, and I will not spit on that legacy.

So now, my daughter, a Bernie supporter, has posted on FB that she is done with the Democratic party. I had hoped that I did not raise her to be this way. I am truly disappointed.