On September 11, 2001 amidst the horrors of that day a primary election was being held. As most of us headed home, my then 93 year old Grandmother insisted on going out... to vote. "Why" I exclaimed, "it's a primary!" "It's very important", she declared, "especially today...now come pick me up."
I never thought much about voting. Like most of us I didn't think my vote really mattered and I took for granted a privilege assuming it was a right and would always be there if and when there was a reason to vote. I ignored history, Nana reminded me of just that. Nana isn't here to vote this election, she would have been outraged by what has occurred. She grew up in an immigrant family, with neighbors who burned crosses into the hills surrounding their home. She lived through two world wars, the Depression, The McCarthy Era, the loss of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, Watergate...decades of extraordinary societal change and upheaval. She took it all in her stride but was always in awe of how far her Granddaughters could go.
So many reasons to hate this election but perhaps lost in all the insanity and vitriol of an election gone mad is one very important, and to say the least historic fact-there is a woman one election away from shattering the final ceiling. This woman may have chosen a different path than your grandmother or your mother or even you. No, she didn't stay home and bake cookies, but she respects your right to do that. Instead she took her gifts and her education and went out and tried to create change that made a difference in people's lives. Is she perfect-no, none of us are, and her journey to kick one door open after another for women and children meant that she had to make some people both unhappy and unsettled-quite brave!
I grew up in the next generation-one that never questioned my right to be in the room, but I was the bookend to my grandmother-too smart for her generation, and my mother-a dutiful follower of hers. I have spent my life following their lead while kicking my own doors open along the way. Without them and everything they taught me, including how to bake cookies, I would not be in that room. Tomorrow we vote to be sure that not just every girl but every child can grow up knowing they too belong in the room!
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