As are most Americans, I am usually busy living my day-to-day life that I forget my life is shaped by those people we elect into office. This election, for me, is dramatically different.

In 2007, at the age of 33, I broke my neck and am now a quadriplegic. And although most of my life was taken from me, I still need to have hope. Maybe not so I can walk, but that maybe I can one day move my finger. Maybe not that I will once again give my kids piggy back rides, but that maybe one day I can brush my daughter’s hair. Maybe I won’t be able to make my husband dinner, but maybe one day I can be trusted near boiling water.

By my hope of ever doing any of these things is shattered if the relevant research is not allowed in this country. Stem cell research. This will cause many knee-jerk reactions by people who have no idea what it’s like to be in my situation. Some people spit the word “liberal” like it is a profanity when they hear the phrase “stem cell research.” But, for me, it is not a mental image of evil men in white lab jackets.

For me, it would be so I could be a “hockey mom” in “small town America.” This research, and the resulting medical advances, could one day guarantee that I would be able to “change” the way I do business here in America. I have my bootstraps, for me the challenge is figuring out how to pull myself up. Finding ways to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injuries through stem cell research would let me be a better mom to my kids, a better wife to my husband, more productive at my job, more involved in my community and restore my faith in all the prayers being said on my behalf.

I challenge you to think about people in my situation when you fill out the bubbles in your ballot this fall. Because I no longer can; however, there is hope that someday I will be able to do so again if the right decisions are made in November. Change only happens when we have a choice. Please don’t take away mine.

Please vote for Barack Obama.

Anna Weidemiller

North Bend