Yesterday was a difficult day for me. For those of you who remember my diary about my mother watching the Wisconsin returns while she lay dying, her ashes were interred yesterday. I couldn't travel back across the country for it, so I had the weird experience of muting the RBC meeting telecast when my Dad called to talk about the experience, just before Harold Ickes made his speech about the Michigan compromise.
I was upset all day -- tense about the committee hearings, missing my mom; at one point, my husband and I were talking about the space shuttle launch, and I said, "I can't remember if my parents ever watched Huntley-Brinkley. I'll have to ask my mom." And then I remembered, and burst into tears.
But something hit me, as I was watching Norah O'Donnell anchoring the shuttled launch.
She started by asking the reporter at the launch site how many launches he had covered. It turned out that he has covered EVERY launch involving an American astronaut; he's been with NBC for half a century.
And then I thought, an extremely pregnant working mother is anchoring this. She is honoring his decades of experience, and he is being just as respectful of her.
I know that shuttle launch wasn't a big deal. I was only watching it because I was waiting for the RBC to come back and announce its deal.
But Norah O'Donnell is a respected journalist. She routinely reports on polling results -- that means she deals in numbers. I'm old enough (and I'm not THAT old, although I feel it sometimes) to remember when it was assumed women COULDN'T do well in math. I know she's not actually doing the calculations, and that Chuck Tood is the numbers guru over there. But my point is, there was been progress.
I know there is sexism in the world. I'm not saying things are perfect. But Mrs. Clinton and her team has been churning up a lot of really dark, as well as dishonest bile. Things will not change for the better focusing on anger. And change requires a clear understanding of what the situation really is. The world is not perfect. But women have made progress, and they will make more progress. They will make progress both working together, and working with the men who are their husbands, brothers, sons, co-workers, friends -- you know, the other half of the human race. Condemn people on the basis of their views and behavior, not their gender. Not all women are feminists. Not all men are the enemy. And people can come together who are not 100% in synch with each other in every possible way and do great things. The identity you act on can be one you have built across gender, across color, across geography, across income. Believing that people can change how they view each other, how they treat each other, is central to progressive politics, and central to why the Obama campaign has been so successful. It does not make us a bunch of idealistic saps. We are winning history. Maybe not as fast as we'd like, or as comprehensively as we like. But the world is changing. American politics does not have to function as a cage match between corrupt oligarchies. The fact that Senator Obama was able to essentially take down the ruling family of the Democratic party with superior organization, message, and ideas is absolutely amazing. Removing a king is not an easy thing to do, and this is basically what he had to do.
I don't know what will happen in November. But I know that the campaign has already achieved positive things. I am proud to support it. And I believe that more people are ready to work together to make positive change.