Why You Should Write A Thank-You Letter To Hillary

As Donald Trump so kindly reminded everyone in his victory speech, Hillary Clinton deserves a big thank you from the country that she's worked for for so long. So even if you didn't vote for her, you should still write Hillary a thank you letter. Some of her achievements on her supporters' behalf were obvious and some were much more behind the scenes — just Hillary going about her daily business of being a badass and speaking up for the underrepresented.

Whether you voted for Clinton, Trump, a third party or write-in candidate, or nobody at all, here's why you should write a heartfelt candidate to our would-be first female president, the first female presidential nominee for a major party, and a woman who is all together deserving of unending respect.

First of all? Hillary has given us an amazing example of how to hold onto dignity in the most difficult situations. These quotes from Clinton's concession speech show how dedicated she is to the ideals of her campaign, and how important it is for her to fulfill the promises that she made in terms of inclusivity and equality. She went up against a candidate whose campaign was all about exclusivity and preserving inequality, but she stood firm.

She met challenge after challenge, from the Benghazi hearings to the never-ending talk about the emails, with grace and confidence. As partisans across the country dive into Twitter and Facebook wars, this is something we can all recognize as impressive.

Secondly, even though she lost, Hillary Clinton made it normal for a woman to run for president. There are children whose first political memory will be of a woman going for that top office, an important memory even though the campaign ended in defeat. She faced waves of misogyny coming from her opponent and his supporters, and never once did she lash out or say the things that probably millions of women were thinking. She may not be the president-elect, but in a way she did break that glass ceiling merely by showing that a win was possible, and by at least winning the popular vote. That is not nothing, and feminists of all stripes owe her huge amount of gratitude.

Finally, Hillary gave a voice to everyone. She and the Democratic Party moved left when prompted to by Bernie Sanders; she stood up for immigrants from all over when Trump tore them down; she's become a great friend to the LGBTQ+ community; and, of course, her support for reproductive rights has been overt and unparalleled. She was there for everyone who her opponent painted as the Other, and she created a movement full of people willing to stand up and fight for their fellow Americans, even in the face of great difficulty. That movement will continue for four years — or as long as it has to.

This thank you letter doesn't just have to be a written in your journal or blog; you can actually, physically send it to Clinton, using a P.O. box that she has set up:

Thank you, Madam Secretary. Thank you for everything that you've done. Thank you for everything that you've started. We will finish it, and we owe you our thanks for putting us on the right path.