Self is not something that automatically happens. From birth to death, self is a growing process that is formed by the choices we make. Human beings are at their best when they make choices to put important priorities before self.

You become a better person when you put family before self. You become a better person when you put country before self, as countless individuals have done beginning in 1776, by starting a new experiment called American democracy.

This November, our American democracy is on ballot boxes across our nation. I am going to go along with hundreds of conservative Republicans, like Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger, Olivia Troye, the staff of former President Ronald Reagan and the family of the late Sen. John McCain and vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for president and vice president, and it’s especially important to vote down ballot to make sure that there is a Democratic majority in Congress to move our country forward. “We won’t go back.”

LARRY ALLEN

Astoria