This Fourth of July, we worry for our friends and family in the United States, we mourn for our home, and we fight for it too. We join with our allies calling for justice and the end of violence against people of color, and we stand together with our fellow Americans fighting for their rights and their lives.
The US has, perhaps, never felt so far from us as it does today, but as Dustin Lance Black so eloquently said to us this week: "We have an incredible amount of power to make a change...by voting from abroad. And if you want to go home, and feel like the US is home again, you need to reach out to ten people and tell them from your heart why you want home to feel like home again, for you and for those people who have never felt it is home."
Voting is the most powerful political tool that we have to make a difference in the United States - no matter where we are around the world, and no matter what state we vote in.
We must, each and every one of us, ensure that we can vote this year, and that every American abroad we know can too. This is the commitment I ask of you today, July 4th, as we prepare for the most important presidential election of our lifetime.
Please, go to votefromabroad.org now and make sure you are ready to vote this fall. Then reach out to your friends and family, wish them a happy 4th and ask that they too help ensure that every American can feel at home in the United States. For more information on how to make that ask, and more information on voting from abroad join the Vote from Abroad Voting Champion program.