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Hi Friend,
When I was in fifth grade, my social studies teacher told us the truth: Christopher Columbus was not the good guy we all thought he was.
I was floored. At 10, I believed everything in our textbooks about history, even the “discovery” of America. I had no idea the truth was a little more complicated.
My fifth grade social studies teacher was also the first person that believed in me.
At my small Catholic school, my mother knew every teacher. I always felt like “the bad kid.” I questioned everything, and stood up for myself and the other students in my classes when I saw something that felt unjust or unfair. I never wanted to cause trouble: I envied the students who got to write on the chalkboard everyday, the kids that the teachers adored. They followed the rules without question, didn’t care about what was true, and I wished I could do the same. But I just could not stop doing things I thought were right.
My fifth grade teacher was the first person who told me that all of the things that I struggled with, that I didn’t like in myself, might be the very things that would help me connect with other people to build something great in the world. She saw my questioning of everything and my advocacy for myself and other students not as trouble making behavior, but as leadership skills.
So when I decided to run for office, she’s the first person I told.
“You put this into motion 30 years ago,” I told her via Zoom.
She lives in Chile now, a political refugee.
She smiled and said “this is what you’re here for.”
I know she cares about the truth - and I believed her.
I believe all of us who have felt like outcasts, misunderstood, ignored by the rest of the world, are here to change things. To help make the world better for everyone, and share our truth so that others don’t have to struggle to be heard.
When I decided to run for office, I did so because I knew that so many others feel the way I used to feel in school. So often, the very things that we dislike in ourselves, that disrupt our lives, are how we connect with others to make the world a better place.
My teacher put this into motion. Will you help me keep it going, and make change in Congress?
- Antonio Daza
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