Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

Dear Hillary,

It’s the night after the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, and the debate about seating delegates from Michigan and Florida is becoming more heated. May I offer an opinion?

I am a Michigan Democrat; and, yes, I voted in our state’s primary on January 15. I am also a woman of your age, so you might think there are a variety of reasons I’m in your camp. Please think again.

First, I knew going to the primary polls back in January that the delegates from Michigan would not be counted because our state’s Democratic organization moved its regularly scheduled primary ahead of other states and was told by the Democratic National Committee in Washington what the consequences would be. I also knew that, in order for my “vote” to even be considered in any light, I should vote for “Uncommitted” if I wasn’t one hundred percent committed to you. And I wasn’t.

We were encouraged here in Michigan to vote as “Uncommitted” if we thought we might support Obama over you. And so I did. We were also told that any write-in candidate would invalidate our vote. Granted, if everyone in the “Uncommitted” column held my point of view, you would still have won. But that assumes that everyone who voted in primary understood the directives. I suspect some didn’t. It also makes me wonder if you would be so adamant about seating the Michigan delegates if you had not “won” the primary.

As I see it, nobody in Michigan was disenfranchised. Those of us who claim to be Democrats should have made our voices heard at the front end, before the decision to move the primary was decided. We should have taken control then, if we really wanted our votes to count. After all, isn’t that what grass roots politics is about? And, ironically, our votes might have counted for more if we’d held our primary at its usual time.

Moving on to gender, I would be proud to vote for the first female president of our country. Great Britain has had one; India has too. But I would also be proud to vote for the first African American president. Ultimately, I want to vote for that person who can best lead our country, regardless of gender or race or age.

And, Hillary, I don’t think you fill the bill. When it comes down to it, I don’t believe you are working for the best interest of our country as much as you are working for the best interest of Hillary Rodham Clinton.