Election season always brings big promises from candidates, and this year we have one in the form of a slogan:

"Make America great again."

Donald Trump, I ask you, when was America great?

Was America great at the birth of our nation as we know it, as Europeans laid down their roots on top of human bones with the slaughter of Native Americans? Surely, this was not a “great” start.

Was America great when African Americans were enslaved? Or later when segregation was legal? Before you say that the past is the past, realize that racism is still alive in this country today, and you promote it.

Was America great before women had the right to vote? (After all, there is this study that shows if women couldn’t vote today, you would win) Before women had the chance to raise their voice to you and tell you what they think? Before Roe v. Wade? You say that no one has more respect for women than you, but you also call women pigs and liars and “nasty.” Charming.

Was America great before words like “transgender” or “feminist” were parts of our everyday vocabulary? Before the internet made us more aware of what's going on around us? Before we decided to be “politically correct” and include everyone we can into our language and into our view of the world? Despite what you and your supporters may think, being “politically correct” doesn’t mean whining about hurt feelings, it means being inclusive and respectful.

We cannot afford to spend time reversing the solutions to problems we have already fixed– why reverse Roe v. Wade or the marriage equality act, as Trump has proposed? We cannot afford to make America what it used to be, especially when there’s so much potential for what it COULD be. There’s so much more progress to be made and new problems to tackle.

Don’t let anyone tell you that this country’s great days are behind us. Of course, we have a lot of history to be proud of, but also in hindsight we realize that we shouldn’t be proud of everything we’ve done as a nation. We’ve made a lot of mistakes and have hurt a lot of people in our past. We do better now because we know better now - we can’t go back, we have to keep moving forward. We can't move forward when Trump is telling people it was better when people were allowed to be racist, sexist, and homophobic.

I love Hillary Clinton’s quote – “America is great because America is good.” We are an amazing country - America is the land that we love. It is the home of the brave. It is America the beautiful. However, we still have work to do. We need to strive for a better future, one that includes everyone in its vision and narrative, and a leader who will continue to move forward, not revert back.