Hillary Clinton will rise and so will we!

Hillary Clinton has returned from her journey into the woods and her time with family and friends.  She made the decision to start speaking up and speaking out once again about the issues that matter most to her, the issues that stir her passions and motivate her to continue moving forward when she could easily just sit back and say nothing.  While Senator Mitch McConnell's words that "she was warned, nevertheless she persisted" were directed at Senator Elizabeth Warren as the reason the Majority Leader told the Senator to sit down and be quiet, those words sum up much of Hillary Clinton's life.

She had been warned numerous times by various groups who opposed her wanting to be more than just her husband's appendage to be quiet.  But Hillary Clinton, like Senator Warren, refused to remain silent.  She refused to allow her intelligence and her education and her work to fade into the past because she was married, nor should she have had to that.  But that was exactly what some men and women not only expected but insisted she do.  Rather than sit down, Hillary Clinton stood up and spoke up and was vilified for doing so, but she continued rising every time she was knocked down.

She recently gave a speech at the Women in the World summit in New York, N.Y. and was interviewed by Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times op-ed columnist.  She spoke about work still left to be done.  She spoke about losing the election and the impact of Russian interference.  She also spoke about the role misogyny played in her loss.  She described an all too oft repeated scenario about men being praised and admired for certain qualities while women are condemned and disliked for the very same qualities.  Research suggests she might be right.  Might be?  As in, she might be talking about something which could be the rule, not the exception?  Women have experienced that double-standard for decades, not just from men, but from other women who for whatever reason, admire the strong, tough male leaders yet disdain the strong tough female leaders in professions considered traditionally male.  Of course what some people seem to forget is that the majority of professions were once considered traditionally male, including teaching and nursing.

Now that Hillary Clinton is speaking again, she is also being told to be quiet again from both ends of the political spectrum.  Not surprisingly, the conservative Right always wants to silence her.  So, too, do some of the progressive Left.  Her time is over, they say.  She lost and needs to go away now, they mutter loudly.  She's the past and the time has come to move forward into a future without her presence looming over the Democratic Party, they explain.  So this woman who has lived the women's revolution and continued to rise every time she was knocked down has no value and nothing more to contribute?  Her voice must now be silenced and her ideas and opinions be kept to herself or shared only among family and friends in private conversations?

Perhaps that is what some people want, but that will never happen.  Once again Hillary Clinton will rise and once again, so will we!