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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

The perfect birthday present

Posted 11/9/12

I was not able to vote this election. My 18th birthday was Nov. 8, two days after the election.

Yet America has given me the best present I could ever ask for. It has given me a President who …

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The perfect birthday present

Posted

I was not able to vote this election. My 18th birthday was Nov. 8, two days after the election.

Yet America has given me the best present I could ever ask for. It has given me a President who cares about the middle class, one who will make paying off student loans easier for me and millions of other college students, one who will make sure that I get the health care I need regardless of my ability to pay.

And the state where I have celebrated all my birthdays has given me a Senator and Congressman who will do the same. It has put its foot down and said NO to voter suppression, NO to bigotry against gays and lesbians, becoming the first in the nation to take a stand and defeat an amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Yet most of all, America has given me the gift of faith in its democracy—I now know that America is NOT for sale, that the money and connections of the powerful few cannot overcome the will of the many. The People have spoken. And it is music to my ears. Thank you, America. Thank you, my friends.

Maxwell Helmberger

Duluth, Minn.