We Do Want Change

I understand that you want to see change in Washington. I do too. I am as tired as business as usual as anyone else. I think the best agent for that change is the woman who has been leading the charge for decades. We cannot make those changes without knowing how to work within the current framework. Let me tell you what change looks like.

In the sixties when Hillary Clinton was coming of age, women were still little more than shadow people. They were almost non-existent in politics or law. They could not get a loan and basically became extensions of their husbands when they got married. They could even be sent to a mental institution for refusing to follow the wishes of their husbands.

When she went to hear Martin Luther King speak in Chicago, she listened to and heard his message and decided then to live a life of service to others. Because of this she changed her political affiliation from that of her family’s and became a Democrat. That’s change.

Hillary was one of a handful of women to be accepted into law school. That was a big step in the direction of changing the pathways of women forever. That was change.

When she was 21 she was a volunteer working in Eugene McCarthy’s presidential campaign immersing herself in the Civil Rights Movement as well as the conflicts surrounding the Vietnam war. That was change.

As First Lady of Arkansas, she defied tradition by keeping her maiden name until it negatively impacted her husband’s political future. Then she hyphenated it. That was change.

As First Lady of Arkansas she left the cookie baking to others and instead helped to found Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families which is dedicated to the betterment of children’s lives by advocating for their health, well-being, and education. She also became an attorney at the Children’s Defense Fund. That’s implementing change.

She was Director of Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law. She was the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation, helping ensure equal access to justice for everyone despite whether you can afford it or not. That was change.

She was the first female partner at Rose Law Firm. That was change.

She was the First Chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession. That was change.

She created Arkansas’s Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth and brought HIPPY to Arkansas, enabling parents to be their child’s first teacher. She was appointed leader of a task force that reformed Arkansas’s education system, improving its rating dramatically. That is change.

She was instrumental in the passing of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP/CHIP) enabling all children to have access to healthcare no matter the income level. That was change.

She helped initiate the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice. That was change.

She Declared to the United Nations that “women’s rights are human rights”, a huge change.

The list goes on. If you want a president that has a long history of initiating change within a system that is very difficult to change, that person would be Hillary Clinton. If you want a president with a history of bettering the people she serves, that would be Hillary Clinton.

What really has her opponent done for anyone other than himself?