Election Day is something that every American looks forward to. It’s a day set aside for us to exercise one of the many rights we have as Americans, and we get to show the politicians of today who we want the president of tomorrow to be.

With the right to participate in an election comes the right to side with whichever party I choose. I choose to vote Democrat because I believe in equality, and on Nov. 6, 2012, I chose to wear my Obama shirt.

What started out as a normal day in English soon turned into a demeaning event. About five minutes after I got to the classroom and chose my seat, a young man walked in and sat down. He glanced over a few seconds after he sat down and immediately shot me a look of disgust. The next thing I knew, he was picking up his things and storming out the door, saying, “Democrats are idiots.”

For a moment, I felt as if I had done something wrong – until I realized that the boy and I have yet to speak a word to each other in class. Knowing this reminds me that he does not know my political views or why they line up with the candidate I voted for. I don’t know what his political views are, and simply looking at his Romney-Ryan shirt was not enough to make me want to ignorantly storm out of a room.

Without taking the time to understand what people believe or even listen to the ideas they want to propose, our country will be in a lot more trouble than I would like to think we are. Comments like those are the reason the bipartisan system is slowly killing our country from the inside out. All people seem to see is party, not person.

As I walked around yesterday and scrolled through my news feed on Facebook and Twitter, all I saw were people quoting “One Nation, Under God.” I would like to think that we are one nation, but we will never be “one” if we can’t learn to accept each other and work together. As long as people walk away from a situation based on what the other person is wearing, there will be no economic progress, no matter who the president is.

I’m looking forward to the day when a presidential candidate can appeal to both parties so I don’t have to walk around a red state in fear of Republicans bashing me for voting for a blue president, but also so I can walk around with confidence knowing that ALL of America is working together, really moving our country forward.

Krista James is a freshman majoring in journalism.