We are standing at a pivotal moment in history: the most important election year of our lives, MPH student Cameron Etessami wrote in a Maryland Matters editorial.
"The last years of the 2010s is what historians will describe as a time when the nation was lost, arguing turning to yelling, led by a populist that cared more about riling his base than the health of his nation," Etessami wrote.
"House impeachment, Senate trial, surprising Democratic primaries and a global pandemic that revealed our country’s racial inequities. 2020 will be the year we look back in retrospect, remembering when our nation’s political and social dynamics shifted forever."
Etessami compared 2020 to the 1968 election of Richard Nixon.
"We stopped the progress the country had been making and actively suppressed the civil rights movement. We did not become better; rather we normalized the problems inherent to our system of government," Etessami said.
This year, we face similar decisions.
"Vote like your life depends on it," Etessami wrote. "Vote because the lives of our Black and Brown brothers and sisters depend on it."
Read the rest in Maryland Matters.