Today is very emotional for me. If I am honest, I did not think we would nominate a woman to be President for either major party until my generation was old enough to run for that office. Not because I thought there were no women worthy of it, but because I did not believe our country would ever be ready for it. Today I was proven wrong and it is the best day of my life so far.
I keep trying to imagine how I would be feeling if I were still that little 14 year old girl who fell in love with politics watching a woman nominated for President of the United States. I imagine that she would be in awe and so excited. That little girl would know she could do anything in the world she wanted. She would know that even though she would be entering a male dominated field she could succeed.
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| That is the 14 year old that fell in love with politics there in the right hand corner with the glasses. (And our future Vice President, NBD.) |
Hillary Rodham Clinton's nomination to be President by the Democratic Party will mean so much for our little girls and for the generations coming after us. They will dream bigger, sore higher, and fight harder. I cannot wait until the day when I can show my daughter the videos of Hillary's nomination and, hopefully, her election and inauguration. Little girls will push past the limitations of the past and move on into a world of greater equality of gender.
For me, today is one of the most important of my life. I witnessed my hero of two decades nominated for President after watching her fight through a campaign with latent sexism strewn through it. When you work in a field like politics the disparity of women to men is thrown in your face every day. It is hard to watch and often you hear women called 'shrill,' 'manish,' and 'overemotional' when running for or holding office. It is hard when you walk into a classroom for your major and you are one of three women in all and if you become passionate about something it is because 'it's that time of the month.' But I and so many others still fought our way through because we had women like Hillary going before us.
You see, she became one of my heroes before she held office for herself. Hillary Clinton was on my radar even when I was just 6 or 7 years old when she was still First Lady. With everything she went through in those years she handled it all with a grace and determination that few in similar positions could achieve. Once finished with her time as First Lady, she went on to become the first First Lady elected to office when she ran and won her New York Senate seat. Her record in the Senate made her one of the most progressive Democratic Senators during her time there. She ran for President once before in 2008 in a primary against the likes of John Edwards and Barack Obama. I stopped supporting John Edwards because of a sexist joke he made at a debate targeting Hillary. I struggled with whether I would support Hillary or Barack right up until I voted in the Virginia Primary. I voted for Barack Obama that cold winter day in 2008. I knew the country wasn't ready. Hillary, in her everlasting grace, moved for a vote by acclamation to nominate Barack Obama at the DNC that year and later accepted the position of Secretary of State in President Obama's administration. As Secretary of State, she visited more countries than any of her predecessors and rebuilt our relations with countries around the world. Now she has run again for the Democratic nomination for President and fought against years of slander and the latent sexism that thrives in our political process and she WON. By popular vote and by delegate allocation, she won.
Because of all this, I am moved and inspired. I hovered on the edge of tears the whole roll call vote and then tipped over to the other side with, a true patriot, Senator Bernie Sanders's motion for a vote by acclamation. Tears ran down my face as I watched a woman, my hero, Hillary Rodham Clinton, nominated by the Democratic Party, my party, for President of the United States. My dreams were always big. I have dreamed of being a congresswoman, an ambassador, and Secretary of State. Today is a day where I truly believe I can achieve any and all of those dreams. That little 14 year old who fell in love with politics is beaming and believes in herself more than ever before. S
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