My mother learned English at the age of thirty-five, and even she makes fun of how George W. Bush speaks. “I know how hard it is to put food on your family,” is her current favorite.

If I were conservative, I most certainly would have retorted, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re not even an American citizen.” Instead, I applaud her and laugh heartily along with her examples of Bush’s embarrassing assaults on diction and pronunciation.

It was my mother who beamed with pride when Teresa Heinz Kerry, in her speech at the Democratic National Convention, said, “I would like to speak to you from my heart. Y a todos los Hispanos y los Latinos…a toda a familia Portugesa e Brazileria.”

“That’s us!” said my mother.

Much of the last three and a half years has centered on a divisiveness that, if the Bush-Cheney campaign has their way, will take over the national dialogue. Bush urges Congress to spend a week considering a marriage amendment, and won’t even spend a week on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. It’s secular America vs. the religious right, African Americans vs. wealthy white Americans, Hispanics who will vote for Bush vs. Hispanics who won’t, red vs. blue states, “the two most liberal Senators in Congress” vs. everybody else. Not once is a real issue plaguing Americans ever mentioned.

John Kerry is better for America on all accounts. He is a strong leader, and will lead us in times of national disaster. He will not send troops into a war zone unless he deems it absolutely necessary. He has a plan for health care. He does not divide America.

As DNC keynote speaker Barack Obama said, “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America -- there is the United States of America.”

And for this I am forever grateful.