I am a wife, mother, daughter, retiree after 45 years working mostly in healthcare, and a proud American. My Army father fought in World War II, surviving the Battle of the Bulge, America’s third largest and bloodiest battle ever. My grandmother was one of the first 20,000 American Army nurses who served in WW1 operating rooms and hospitals.

My great, great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Wood, a rural upstate N.Y. preacher, enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 after Fort Sumpter was fired upon. He wrote, “I did it from a sense of duty. The way I looked at it, if the government was broken up and destroyed, the safeguard to our homes and our churches was gone and we would have no security whatever for any of our property and rights, for it is the government that stands behind these and secures them to us.”

Now 159 years later, most Americans think America is going in the wrong direction.

What is our individual civic “duty?” What is our personal responsibility?

Vote for leaders with proven government expertise, with solid integrity, with real plans to strengthen and build America back better. Join me. Defy labels. Defy propaganda. Defy tweets. Defy misinformation and Russian attacks. Vote for Biden/Harris. Every vote counts.

Claudia Griffiths lives in Camden