Dear Acacia,

I am a strong Hillary supporter and when you say "Help me want to vote for Obama," I know how you feel. But the Clintons did that for me through their speeches.

They made me ask myself, was I in it for Hillary or for the causes I believe she represents.

I challenged myself to separate my feelings about Sen. Obama from my anger about comments made by people like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann.

When I was upset about Hillary not being considered as vice president, I realized that there were any number of Democrats like Joe Biden whom I could support but not one single Repubican John McCain could choose to make voting for him more palatable.

I thought about whether the best way to change things I found objectionable in the primary was to cast my vote for a man who is against most of the things Hillary is for.

I also considered how I would feel if by sitting out the election or voting for a third-party candidate I aided in four more years of White House occupation by conservative Republicans.

We Clinton supporters have argued that Hillary cannot force those of us who back her to do anything. Obama has just as little control over those who call us names.

We do have a choice. We can choose to ignore comments about us being old, bitter and bigoted and instead listen to those whose opinions we respect on issues that matter most to us like health care, Social Security, equal pay and helping the struggling middle class. Sometimes it's hard to hear the quiet voices of reason over all the shouting but they're out there.

I know not everyone will reach the same decision, after all we come from a big, sometimes dysfunctional and very diverse Democratic family.

But it's a family where I am more at home than I could ever be with the likes of George Bush and Dick Cheney. And when I see how McCain has voted for their policies 95 percent of the time, I realize he's not the maverick I once thought but just another one of their Republican relatives.

Your letters here have the most positive tone of any I've seen from you. If you've seen any of my comments regarding Bill and Hillary's speeches, I hope you feel the same toward my postings.

The Uncivil War between Democrats is one only Republicans can win.

I hope Bill and Hillary Clinton's speeches may have convinced some of the Democratic doubters that they desperately want the party to take back the White House and will do what they can to ensure that happens.

As for the impact on Hillary's supporters, I can speak only for myself when I say their words have made me do a lot of thinking.

I remain disappointed that I will not see a woman in the White House in my lifetime, particularly a woman whom I felt was uniquely qualified.

But will it advance the cause of equal rights for people of every race, religion and gender if people like me throw away a lifetime of supporting the Democratic party and miss the chance to help in the historic election of the nation's first African-American president?

I once thought John McCain was a different kind of Republican but now I wonder where that "maverick" went and who has taken his place. How can I support someone who opposes equal pay for equal work, is against giving gay Americans their rightful place in society, favors privatizing Social Security and supported Bush's decision to veto a bill extending health insurance to more children?

My bottom line has come down to this: It doesn't make sense for me to protest what I viewed as unfair treatment of a woman candidate by handing the White House back to the Republicans for another four years and counting on a Democratic House and Senate to keep them from doing too much damage.

I hope Bill Clinton's speech tonight convinced at least some of the doubters that he and Hillary Clinton are devoted to the Democratic party taking back the White House.

I don't know how his words played with Obama's supporters but as a Clinton voter, I can say both he and Hillary have made me search my soul about what I should do in November.

I hope both sides can put aside our differences and work toward a common goal and understanding.

To my sisters (and brothers, too) who supported Hillary Clinton and were sorely disappointed by her loss, who will we really be punishing by casting aside a lifetime of believing in the Democratic party and not taking the historic opportunity to cast our ballots for the first African-American president?

If there are wrongs in the process, we can work to right them. If the media has been biased, we can make our feelings known. But one thing I am becoming convinced we cannot do is leave the White House in Republican hands for another four years.

I once thought John McCain was a different kind of Republican but the more I see him, the more I realize he is no different from other members of the GOP who have never cared about people like me.