I love Cisco. I love the People Deal. I love Cisco's commitment to people of all shapes and flavors. That we have teams dedicated to taking Cisco's financial and technology success out into the globe trying to make a difference and pay it back to our communities - all of our communities - is awesome. This is humanity in action, not a political agenda. Walking the talk and ensuring equal treatment for marginalized people is often used as political capital, but the action of hard working and dedicated people who fight for these rights is an act of passion, compassion and pure humanity.

Unless you a person who is categorized as LGBTQ+ (or other discriminated-against groups) and have felt unsafe, unprotected and frankly terrified for your life and the ability to provide for your family and keep from being homeless due to bias and discrimination, I'm not sure one can fully appreciate how meaningful it is to read these words.

Can you imagine losing your job because someone didn't like you? Not because of your work ethic, or all that you had produced or completed. What if you had worked somewhere for years and all of a sudden people knew something about you that they HATE for some reason (religion, gender-identity, where you were born, someone you married, etc...) and because of that biased, they discriminated against you and you lost your job and had to find a new one? What if medical circumstances were involved and you lost health insurance critical for yourself or a child or spouse? What if you could not find a new job? What if you lost your home? Had to sell your furniture, your vehicles, your prized possessions to make it?

I know many people who have lived through that. My best friend lost his job after a new manager came in to his place of employment (not Cisco) and he went from the high rated employee to the lowest (not kidding) after 12 years of being a beloved manager. He lost everything. I have met many people in this situation over the years. It is unbelievably unfair. And there is usually no recourse because legal battles are long and hard and wipe out the individual.

I do not understand why people are so rabid and hateful about equality. I do not consider it a hard left agenda. I consider it humane. I have friends across the spectrum - Democrat, Republican, Independent, etc... from all different faiths and walks of life. I find that the more people are open to people's stories and the individual, the more walls are torn down. Great love and understanding is shared between my friends and I across the board. Talking helps.

This is yet another reason I love Cisco. We built the Internet. We are the architects of the greatest tool of democracy of our time. It is allowing us to talk and share and have conversations that we could not have had before at this scale. It fosters the breaking of ignorance. You do not have to be afraid of people you do not understand, because you can get to know who they are by taking the time to care and learn and communicate online. And to carry over conversations to meaningful real world cooler chats and lunch dates and dinner parties.

Let us, the people, stop letting political agendas decide how we are going to act. To decide whether we spread love or hate. Positivity or negativity.

Thank you Cisco. Thank you Charlie. And Fran. And Chuck. And to all Cisco employees who make the world a better place. I'm so proud to be a part of this Cisco family.

Love,
Char