Hillary Back In The Day
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on May 1, 2009 at 2:00 PM in Barack Obama, DNC idiocy, Delegates, Democratic Nomination, Democratic Party, Feminism, Gender Bias, Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Senate
My good buddy, SusanUnPC (No Quarter), told me about this lovely story. I figured since I ended up writing about Hillary Clinton yesterday, I might as well continue the theme and write about her today, too. Oh, who am I kidding - I could write about her EVERY day. She is the Secretary of State, after all, and is out doing the people’s work every single day. No frequent vacations for her. Come to think of it, I don’t remember WHEN was the last time she took a vacation. Huh. Imagine that! So different from our last two presidents. But I digress.
This is not about Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, or even US Senator, or First Lady of the USA, or even First Lady of Arkansas. Not even Hillary Clinton, “Top 100 Attorneys in the USA,” first ever student valedictorian of Wellesley, or any of that. Nope. This is about Hillary Clinton, the child. From ABC News, Kirit Radia gives us this story, Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her “Ah-Ha” Moment.
This is the story of how she CAME to be all of those things mentioned above:
In an appearance at the Women’s Museum in Dallas on Friday, a transcript of which was released over the weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke candidly about the challenges she faced in breaking the glass ceiling, and referenced her run for the presidency last year.Clinton revealed that she was “sort of a tomboy” when she was a young girl. “I did love to play sports and played with a lot of the boys in my neighborhood,” she said. She said the experience instilled a thirst for competition that served her well later.
“I wanted to be a baseball player,” she told an amused audience. “I wanted to be a journalist. I know you’ll never believe that.”
I can sure understand that. I had three brothers, so a built-in team there, but also the boys across the street. We played football - TACKLE football, that is, basketball, soccer, you name it, I played it. And I loved it. Still do love sports, for that matter.
But can’t you just see the young Hillary at a baseball game , or listening to it on the radio, or watching it on TV, cheering her team on (Cubs or Yankees - and yes, you CAN have two different favorite teams - one’s in the National League - Cubs, and one’s in the American League - Yankees. Makes perfect sense to this Braves/Yankees fan!)? I sure can. No doubt, she brought the same level of enthusiasm to her love of baseball that she brings to the work she has been doing as an adult.
But her dreams didn’t end there:
Clinton (told) the story about her aspirations to be an astronaut, one of her earliest encounters with the glass ceiling.“I think I was thirteen or so, and so I wrote to NASA to ask how I could become an astronaut. And I got a response back which was, ‘We’re not interested in women astronauts,’” she said.
She spoke of the obstacles she faced in pursuing her professional and academic goals.
“When we were growing up, there were just so many overt and implied obstacles to what young women could aspire to. There were certainly schools you couldn’t go to, scholarships you couldn’t apply for - jobs that were not available to you,” Clinton said.
Again, I can relate. Not just in sports - Title IX came too late for me - but in professions like the ministry. My own father did not support women’s ordination, but I went to seminary anyway.
Sadly, there are still too many obstacles to women, Clinton’s being Secretary of State notwithstanding:
“You really have to prepare. And you have to get knocked down, and you have to pick yourself up, and you have to keep going,” she added later.Clinton referenced her lost bid for the Democratic nomination last year. When asked about an “ah-ha” moment that she was going to be able to meet the lofty goals she’d set for herself, Clinton said there was another “ah-ha” moment of another manner.
“I had an ah-ha moment that I wasn’t going to be the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States,” she said as the audience laughed (according to the transcript). “That’s a kind of different ah-ha moment.”
Uh huh. That “ah-ha” moment was probably more of the “I can’t believe I actually have more votes, more experience, and won every major state except Illinois - and I know that it does NOT border Arkansas like Obama thinks it does - have devoted my LIFE to this party, put up with all kinds of crapola, and they are STILL picking the inexperienced, unqualified guy over ME!” But that’s just a guess on my part.
But Secretary of State Clinton carries on, with a passion for people and the issues we face rarely seen among politicians. And she continues the good fight for women to, some day, truly have equality, a dream that took quite a beating this past election season, unfortunately. But she will keep carrying on, like she always does, working for us. Some day, some how, we will get there. We CAN get there, we MUST get there, and we WILL get there, when we have leaders like Hillary Clinton. Thank you, Madame Secretary.
Thank you for modeling a woman “standing in her own skin.” The importance of doing so cannot be downplayed. And thank you for the “Ah-Ha!” moments you brought to all of us this past election season. You showed them all - the naysayers, the ones who bullied you, who put you down, who cheated you out of your votes, all of them. You stood with us, and we will stand with you.
(Release: November 13)
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Hillary and I are of the same generation; I was a grade ahead of her in school. During the primary when her credentials were scoffed at, I knew about the hurdles and closed doors she had experienced. I recognized the excellence and toughness of the top women’s colleges and knew she had to be brilliant
One of the commenters to your link said why didn’t she protest not being part of the draft pool, why didn’t she fight that inequity. Oh, my, how younger generations are ignorant of that time, the 30 years post-WW2! Women had to unite in a movement to be taken seriously and for more doors to open.
There are obstacles still, and the one Hillary knows only too well–a woman being elected president of the US.
I remember fighting for “The Pill” in the 60’s, something every woman today takes for granted.
Good for you, Pam. I got the pill easily in 1963 but then, I was in Canada at the time. Why do American women have to fight for everything?
I’m a bit older than Hillary but gosh - that picture shocked me because it looked a lot like my toddler pictures. And Hillary got the same letter as a famous woman in my profession got from Walt Disney. “Oh, I know we offered you a job but that was before we knew you were a woman. Women can’t be animators.”
Many thanks, RRRA for this reminder. It was a shot in the arm.
I was getting a bit depressed today, but now I’m going back out there fighting. I’m also sending money to Hillary. Go Hillary!
re the draft, here’s a clue to those who raise that cannard: equality doesn’t mean that women do everything exactly like men - what kind of equality is that? why should women have to conform to male standards and practices in everything?
equality can just as easily mean men *not* being drafted as women being drafted. and re war in general, there is an area where i would really like to see men be more like women than the reverse.
I hope all of those mysoginists out there who hold women like Hillary down from their potential come back in another life as intelligent, capable women, unless of course, that glass or marble ceiling is broken or somehow disappears. In that case, they can come back as the dumbasses they are.
Oh, sowsear, thank you so much for that laugh! Right there with ya…
It is amazing, isn’t it, how much the younger women take for granted? Like all of our marching for Equal Rights and to be seen as something OTHER than sex objects, yet there they go wearing “sexy” saying across their rear ends…They haven’t the foggiest how hard we worked for them to NOT have to rely on the kindness of the men in their lives (in my mind’s eye, I see that young woman wearing the HORRIBLE Sarah Palin t-shirt, standing there with her guy friends…).
Great comments, folks…
It shocks us early and mid 40 something feminists too, like me, young enough to benefit from the start of title IX, but old enough to remember what it was like before, and seared into our memories, what still had to fight for. To see these teen to early thirties girls and young women attack feminist candidates and fawn up to misogynist fauxgressive males, while claiming they were feminist. It sickened me even more to see second wave feminist women who back in the day spoke out for women’s rights now fawn over a misogynist male candidate and virulently attacked all the feminist women candidates- Hillary, Sarah, and Cynthia too.
Sarah Palin is of my generation (just two years my senior), so I knew very what battles she had fought to get where she was. She helped me understand that even a religious conservative Republican can be a stanch feminist.
I also understood Hillary’s battles, because my mother, born 12 years before Hillary, had struggled with those barriers and some barriers that even Hillary didn’t have to be at the forefront of fighting, but the older rank and file second wavers like my mother did.
I grew up with a liberal feminist mom who was proud to have two liberal feminist daughters, the older one (me) being particularly outspoken. Which is why I backed and voted for Hillary in the primaries, and backed and voted for Cynthia McKinney in the general election.
and we could have had a v8. instead we got koolaid.
Thank you so much for this. It is amazing how many do not know of all Hillary’s accomplishments and instead busy themselves by practicing ‘contempt prior to examination.’ I’m glad she’s out there fighting for us.
*sniff*
It still breaks my heart. I was also a tom boy, and had to fight against the obstacles of being a smart, athletic, outspoken young woman before it was even remotely popular/accepted. That’s why I identified with her so much last year, and was awestruck by her courage and strength in the face of intense hostility and adversity. She just kept getting better, more brilliant, more centered with each challenge. We was robbed…Even now, I don’t know how she continues with such focus and cheer. We all know who the cheater was here, and she has to work with him on a daily basis. Instead, she keeps her eye on the larger prize–her goals for this country.
i agree; she has persevered when many others would have and did give up. i think she’s making them like it, so to speak, and the path will be easier for the next woman.
Great post Amy. She’s my inspiration. She is a woman of grace and I don’t understand why her haters refuse to see it.
Take a look at her face in these photos with Barry if you want to see grace in motion. Click on each photo for hi-res.
http://allthingshillaryclinton.blogspot.com/2009/04/photos-of-hillary-in-honor-of-obamas.html
Just in case anyone needs a refresher course in our very dear girl’s accomplishments here is a post by Susan from 12/18/07 that Susan re-posted recently and I saved.
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/12/18/the-rights-of-women-and-children-worldwide-the-candidates-differ/
Amy, she never seems to run out energy but she did take a much deserved vacation after the primaries were over. I would have taken to my bed and pull down the shades indefinitely!
Thanks, Jackarooty - I honestly couldn’t remember if she had, but I think I may have gone and not come back. But that’s not how Hillary rolls…
And thank you again for the links - is it just me (and it could be), but doesn’t it look like Obama is trying to convince Hillary in the first couple of photos?
Yes it does look like he is trying to convince Hillary and she looks like she’s at least a few light years ahead of him!
It might be wishful thinking but I think she could run again for POTUS in 2016.
I wish for 2012.
Hillary lives by her creed: Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward. Life is too short, time is too precious and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. She is a role model for all of us, for all time.
AMEN,,SHE IS MY HERO….
While canvassing in Scranton for the PA Primary I came to a house with all kinds of Hillary signs. The people invited me in for a cool drink and a pee.
The man was Hillary’s friend growing up on the lake nearby and the house I was in, she had played in many times as a kid. I was amazed at the small world but more at this everybody’s working class neighborhood that had so much influence on her. They were sweet people who sent me on my way with directions about a half mile away to the Rodham plot at the local cemetery.
The Grave
The Street
Hillary is more than qualified to be SOS. She’s much more qualified to be POTUS than Obama.
I’m sorry she was born white. That’s an accident of birth. None of us get to pick our parents.
Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chilsom would have made excellent Presidents. Far better than Obama.
It’s great to see a strong woman at work.
She is amazing and I will never regret my support for this woman. If, by some wonderous miracle, she runs again, I will give her as much support as I can muster, and then some. She deserves so much more than she was given and so do we. I was watching a story they were doing on Biden by “60 Minutes”. The woman reporter remarked that Hillary Clinton and Biden had breakfast together once a week and enjoyed each other’s company, despite the fears expressed by many that they would be combative with each other. Why do so many people always expect the worse, when she has proven over and over again, that she is not the divisive character they keep trying to portray her as? I know I should look forward, but I can’t help but look to the past, and know, that we would have been much better off with Hillary as President. Besides, we must look to the past, so that we can learn from it. We cannot allow the fraud that occured to ever happen again. Ever!!!
Yes Hillary and Joe have been friends for a long time. That’s why I can’t hate on Joe. He loves our girl. As soon as I heard her name being floated for SoS I thought of Joe. The back story came out later due to Jill Biden’s slip. I feel that Joe pushed very hard for Hillary to be nominated as SoS.
Here is a link to Hillary’s daily schedule. If you go back and check all of the Tuesdays that she is in D.C. you’ll see that she has breakfast with Joe.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/appt/2009appt/index.htm
Consider this…out of all the Cabinet appointees she got the most favorable Senate vote 94-2.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00006
Oh yeah I forgot about this one. When she was still a viable candidate Joe’s name was floated to be her SoS!
Like arran, who wrote the first comment, I am of Hillary’s generation. I am just a fews months younger than she.
I was a poor farmer’s daughter who attended a semi-private high school affiliated with the local college. Most of my classmates were the sons and daughters of college professors, doctors, and lawyers, etc. I, however, never had competition for the top grades and was graduated as the class valedictorian. I scored in the upper 90th percentile across the board on the ACT and the SAT.
I went on to college but did not follow my dreams. I was raised by good Germans from Russia. They felt farming was the highest calling and never understood my passion for learning. My high school counselor spent much time getting the boys in my class into top science and math programs across the country. I was told that my desire to become an archaelogist, something I had dreamed of since I was very young, was a silly goal. I was told I should not try to major in math or science since I was a girl and that if I majored in history I would never get a job as a teacher (since they believed that was the only job a female history major might get) since I didn’t want to coach (I never liked sports, unlike Hillary). Therefore, my profession as an English teacher was chosen for me by my high school counselor. He had been offered a tuition scholarship for me by Columbia, but he and my parents turned it down since the local college also gave me one. They just felt it was silly to spend the travel money and living expense money on me, a girl.
I was graduated with honors in my BA program and received the Dean’s Citation for Excellence in my MA program. I say, “So What?”
That indeed was the way it was. That is why I am so impressed with Hillary. She has the fire in her gut to do what she wants as much as she can. I gave in to all that pressure to “stay in my place.”
It is time we stop deciding what place is right for women. It’s whatever place they want.
Diana L. C.
As a high school counselor, I am SOO dismayed to hear your story…but, unfortunately not surprised.
Things have changed, at least in some places. I work in Texas and I can assure you that none of the eight counselors in our department would try the stunts you referenced!
her army awaits the call..
any time HILLARY we are ready..
I still believe in Hillary and I’ll be ready, too, whenever she gives the word.
I’m another one who had aspirations that were squashed by the times. I dreamed of a Rhodes Scholarship until I learned they were only awarded to men at that time. Considering all the uphill climbing Hillary had to do to get where she is, she’s simply amazing. If you all haven’ yet read her book, Living History, I recommend it highly.
Wow. Your stories move me so much. Thank you, one and all, for sharing them here.
Ani, I LOVE that expression, “practicing ‘contempt prior to examination.’” That sums up so nicely what happened to Hillary, and to too many women…
New Hampster, lovely story - and thanks for the links to those sites!
I failed to mention that the State Dept Blog has gotten 5,000,000 views since Hillary took her position (http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/dipnote_five_million/). That is not because of Obama. That is because of HILLARY.
Jackarooty, great links - thanks!
And your personal stories - so touching. Thank you, friends.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is my inspiration.During the primary, Hillary was viciously attacked by this corrupt politicians,BO’s supporters and by her opponent himself,Barack Obama.And each time, I would say I would change my political party to the Republican.What stops me is Hillary. She has the country in mind and stay as a Democrat, inspite of the many back stabs she got.She inspire me, honest.Hardworking and dedicated public servant.
Everytime I feel down, I think of Hillary: “Get up and move on.”
However, I did not vote for Obama.That space in the ballot belonged to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
As far as taking on the jobs men had back when Hillary was at the age to choose her path, or rather as someone mentioned fight for women to get in to the military etc.
Hey, If you have the means and the brains to go to college and not have to fight a war, then do it.
I have my college degrees. You Betcha!
I am too old for the military. But, I would go in a heart beat to get trained to protect this country right here on our own American soil when all hell breaks loose because of the weak POTUS.
Oh thank oyu so much Reverend Amy for this lovely post. My story is like others here. I am two years older than Hillary and also wanted to be an archaeologist. My guidance counselor kept insisting on giving me catalogs for 2-year colleges even though I scored in the 98th percentile on the SAT. She could barely look me in the face when I made it into the honors section at a 4 year state college. I applied to and got into a very competitive private college also - for the hack of it, but couldn’t go there because I didn’t have enough money and my parents had a hard time understanding that I HAD to go to college since I was never prepared to DO anything except go to school.
Yes, I grew up with all those same obstacles, including boyfriends who didn’t want me to go to college and told me not to talk politics in front of their friends because their friends didn’t like girls who sounded too smart.
Well, I made it through grad school, have several degrees and I STILL like to talk about politics.
It is my best pleasure to watch Hillary, the smartest girl in the class, and all she has done and continues to do.
And YES - those 5,000,000 hits on Dipnote ARE due to Hillary.
YOU GO, HILLARY!! YOU TOTALLY ROCK!! As do my sisters here and especially Rev. Amy!
@Jackarooty Great pics! Thanks! I love seeing Hillary in that hot pink jacket in a roomful of men. In one pic, the only other woman at the table is also in hot pink. =)
NO, I don’t understand the Hillary haters either. Never did, never will. She’s my girl. That won’t change.