I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who truly understands that we have entered the sixth great extinction on the planet and the only great extinction caused by one species.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who understands that this is the make or break decade of the make or break century for the future of human civilization.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who understands the fierce urgency of now when it comes to addressing climate change and keeping the vast majority of fossil fuel in the ground and stopping the fracking revolution that brings about much more human and ecological harm than economic good.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who understands that current agricultural practices of big agribusiness are destroying our pollinators, contributing to climate change, poisoning our water, and harming human health.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he has worked for racial justice and civil rights his entire adult life, from the early 1960s all the way to the present.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he has been a consistent advocate for women’s rights, women’s health, and equal pay his entire political career.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he has been a consistent advocate for LGBTQ rights and equality long before there were very many consistent advocates in the Congress.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he has been the most consistent candidate in rejecting mass incarceration and the rise of the private prison industry.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the candidate who has most consistently fought for universal health care for all persons.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he sees providing tuition free college education as one of the most important investments we can make for social and economic justice.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who has always worked for a living wage for all persons and for lessening the ever increasing economic and political power that banks and other powerful corporations have over ordinary persons’ lives.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who consistently understands that military force should only ever be used as a very last resort.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who rejects financial support from the very corporations most responsible for contributing to the sixth great extinction on our planet.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because he is the only candidate who has been working for systemic change his entire adult life and who understands that systemic change is the only way forward to a more just, peaceful, participatory, and sustainable society.

It is no accident that the individuals and corporations who continue to profit from the sixth great extinction on our planet are spending billions of dollars to protect the trillions of dollars of profit they gain from planetary and human exploitation to keep someone like Bernie Sanders from being president. It is no accident that the individuals and corporations invested most heavily in profiting from the devastation of our planet have invested and are investing heavily in his opponent. Walmart; Goldman Sachs and other massive banks and investment firms; Monsanto, Tyson, and other Big Ag interests; the private prison industry; the military industrial complex; and the fossil fuel industry have been investing in the Clintons for decades, and their investments have paid off for them time and time again. Instead of rejecting their support and these investments, the Clintons seek them out and willingly accept them. These are demonstrably the industries most responsible for our gross social and economic injustices as well as the sixth great extinction on our planet.

We are living in the sixth great extinction, and that is why I voted for Bernie Sanders. If that makes me an idealist, so be it, but I think it makes me a realist. In a time of great crisis, nonviolent and systemic revolution is needed; not the ongoing ecocidal game of the planet’s destroyers paying their way for a controlling seat at the table of economic and political power. The time for systemic change is now.