I'm with her because........the images

A visual love letter to Hillary Clinton from our community... We want her for our next president and are happy to tell you our reasons. We don't agree with corporate media representations that question her character and are taking this chance to tell you what WE think. Take a look. 

Soon to turn 18 and about to vote in her first presidential election 

Heart, mind, experience

Yes, she cares about you, me and everybody. She is inclusive.

She is only 14, but she knows what she is talking about

Small businessman and community activist for Hillary

Will help all people in this country prosper

A conservative Supreme Court gave us Citizens United. She'll make better appointments.

Diversity brings interest and luck to American life.

This series of 9 images is from a local Hillary/Kaine phone bank.

She plans to study occupational therapy in college.

The Oval Office is a room of one's own for the world's sake.

One of my personal favorite comments

LOVE trumps hate

VOTE 2016

It's cold in Canada

From my photo project "I'm with Her because...." Here is what the under 25 years old group has to say about Clinton's candidacy. Clearly their comments come from the heart.

Sound logic, not sound bites

A message and photograph from my friend Kimberley Rodler.....

"I painted this sign on a 8 foot tall by 4 food wide piece of cardboard because, "I Am With Her."    While one candidate keeps messing around with reckless words, Senator Secretary Clinton expresses her experience, intelligence, sensible nature and demonstrates the power to lead us.    End of the week she said, "Ideas, not insults." 

I painted, "Ideas not insults, Knowledge not intuition, Sound logic not sound bite" in my garage in Marin County.  I took the Larkspur ferry with the sign to the San Francisco Ferry Terminal.  Then I carried the sign down Market Street to the bus heading to Hillary Clinton Headquarters. 

I choose to be an active volunteer rather that live in fear that the other candidate will become president by hogging press coverage and playing on peoples' fear.  If you want to be an active supporter of Hillary Clinton please volunteer at 1001 Van Ness Avenue at O'Farrell Streetfrom 10:oo am to 8:oo pm daily.  About 50 days remain until Election Day November 8, 2016."

Speaking up for children, families and the disabled

I'm with her because .....
"She speaks up for children and families and for those with disabilities. She understands the need for children and adults to have health insurance and the additional burden that special health care needs convey. Her background in advocating with solid solutions and legislative achievements and policy-both national and international-make her my choice and that of those who want our nation to GAIN rather than lose stature, social- economic and political advancement here and around the world."  Lucy Crain, MD

It's about competence

It's about competence and overcoming adversity for this physician. I'm with Her because....
"As a Physician, I know that if I were to develop a brain tumor, I would want the best possible choice for my care. Not the supremely self-confident Doc down the street who has read some of the textbook and "thought about it for awhile", but has never done the procedure. No, I want the experienced Neurosurgeon that has worked in the field for decades and has done the procedures multiple times. I realize that some of her cases may not have worked out great, but that she has learned from adversity and has posted a great track record overall. That is who I want for my life or death situation!"

You go girl!

He was worried and said "does this sound too patronizing?" I said I don't think so. From my photo series "I'm with Her because...." Some of the older, wiser people I know have a way of going straight to the heart of the matter.

Do all the good you can....by all the means you can...

Here is what Schuyler Rhodes had to say about his support for Hillary Clinton as part of my project "I'm with Her because....." He is a United Methodist pastor and former pastor of my church. Hillary Clinton is also a United Methodist.

I am not supporting Hillary Clinton because I am opposed to Donald Trump, though that opposition is real. I am supporting Hillary Clinton for president because at no time in recent history have we had someone so qualified to serve in this way. Secretary Clinton was an excellent Secretary of State, a highly effective US senator, and has spent her life in service to her community.

I also support her because I know her compassionate and powerful support for disadvantaged and hurting people.

It's true. I am opposed to Donald Trump in so many ways. But I can think of no one else other than Hillary Clinton who is tried, tested and qualified as she is.....I'm with her.

The way to a kinder world

I asked my friend Jay to explain the sign he and Ruthann decided to make for my photo project "I'm with Her because....." This is what he said:

"He represents darkness, an abyss of hate and fear.   In contrast she represents light, illuminating the way to a kinder world."   Thank you Jay and Ruthann Hammer

Turning 18 and voting for president for the first time

This young woman is turning 18 soon and will be able to vote in her first presidential election. She is interested in working with people with special needs and is very clear about her choice---for my photo series "I'm with Her because....."

It's not the time for on the job training!

More photographs in my series "I'm with Her because...."
Eric Whittington, proprietor of Bird and Beckett Books in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco, makes a statement about Hillary Clinton. My favorite independent bookstore also acts as a neighborhood community center sponsoring jazz concerts, world music concerts and poetry readings. Prior to one of the concerts Howie, a clarinetist in a jazz quartet, very clearly states his case.

My grandfather was an immigrant, and so was yours I'll bet

I am blessed to live in a city of immigrants---blessed because San Francisco is a really, really interesting town. I challenge you to find a city with better Chinese restaurants, or Indonesian, Indian, Korean, Mexican, Salvadoran, Japanese, or Ethiopian.

I work with immigrants and many of my patients are immigrants. They moved here because they wanted a better life for their children and because they fled violence in their home country. My own grandfather immigrated to this country from Sweden when he was 18 years old and I wish I'd thought to ask him why. He retired in southern Wisconsin by Lake Geneva, because it reminded him of Lake Siljan in Dalarna province in Sweden where he grew up. 

From my photo campaign "I'm with Her because...." Roughly translated from the Chinese characters this sign says: Cultural diversity adds luck and joy to American life. Personally I'll add that it certainly has enlarged my world.

He who must not be named

Kids are weighing in with support for Hillary Clinton in my photography series "I'm with Her because....." If any of you are Harry Potter fans you'll recognize the connection.

Champagne corks popping in heaven

Another look at how people react to Hillary Clinton's presidential run---the next image in my series "I'm with Her because....."

Personally I love Kimberley's photograph, because she managed to get so much into the image. Her mother-in-law for starters. She's also sitting in her great grandmother's rocker holding signs referring to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Virginia Woolf. The photograph honors a long line of women who have fought for women's rights. I'll bet the champagne corks were flying in heaven when Hillary Clinton accepted the nomination. I know I was in tears.

Kimberley sitting in her great grandmother's rocker. Mother-in-law Yvonne standing behind.

I'm with Her because......

As a recovering Bernie supporter during the presidential primaries I had mixed feelings about the Clinton candidacy. Then I listened to the Democratic convention and learned what she has done for children's health, how supportive she was personally to first responders in her home state of New York. I knew I could trust her appointments to the Supreme Court, her support of women and gay rights. So I decided to throw my support her way, and rather than just go and vote I wanted to do more, so I started a photography project: "I'm with Her because...."

I wanted people to say how they feel about her, free of media bias. So I decided to photograph people in my home city of San Francisco. We have a diverse population here, many ethnicities, many income levels. And I discovered they all have something interesting to say.

First woman up in this little series is my friend Anne Ireland:

My name is Anne Ireland, and like Hillary Clinton, I was raised in the suburbs of Chicago, in Mount Prospect, about fifteen mile northwest of Park Ridge, where she grew up. I am a year older than her, and so, as someone who came of age in the late sixties, I am very well aware of the sexism of my male peers. When I see Clinton vilified and held to standards her male peers need not concern themselves with, I am enraged, because nothing much has changed since males in the counter culture dismissed me as a “chickie.” However, I am also inspired, because she has never lost her temper, or responded in kind to her critics. She also listens, even though she has been mocked for her listening tours. She belongs in the White House. She is a dedicated public servant, she’s still on her feet, and she knows what she’s doing. I'm with her.

Hungry in the USA

If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much. -- Marian Wright Edelman

When my friend, pediatrician Lucy Crain, asked if I would be willing to work on the issue of local childhood hunger my first response was confusion. Hungry children in the U.S., this was an issue?  In fact per a CDC survey, 20% of children in the U.S. don’t have access to enough nutritious food. In the San Francisco Bay Area—Silicon Valley—where I live that figure is as high as 25%.

The title of the photography project “Who’s Hungry? You Can’t Tell by Looking” was her idea. She was concerned because pediatricians didn’t regularly screen their young patients for hunger. The images from this project—half of children from hungry families and half not—reached 65,000 pediatricians in online newsletters nationally. They also impacted thousands of visitors to the California state capitol where they hung outside the governor’s office.

In 2015 the national leadership conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics passed a resolution to ensure that pediatricians routinely screen for childhood hunger. Thank you Lucy, for making me aware of this issue. Thank you to the Northern Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics for your support. And thanks to all the children and families who participated in this photography project. I am the only person who knows which family belongs to which category, and I’m pretty sure you can’t tell who is who by looking.