Or losing her healthcare, or about working conditions.
She knew she would never have to worry about how she was going to afford to send her child to college, or paying for a doctor.
She never had to worry about having her home foreclosed by a predatory lender.
Admittedly, I'm a strong Obama partisan, and have been for a long time. That said, before this race I had tremendous respect for the Clintons - much more so than many, even on the left, who decried the time they spent in the White House. I've done my best to give them the benefit of the doubt, and there was a point, after watching one debate where she was articulating her points so perfectly and so strongly, that I was even tempted for a moment. But never again, after reading of what happened at Wal-Mart.
I know unions aren't perfect; in fact, I've seen in my own home state of New Jersey how deftly some union leaders manuever themselves to curry favor with those offering empty promises, or retribution against past slights. But I believe in unions; my father was in a union, his father and uncles before him, their fathers too, virtually from the moment they stepped off the boat a century ago. Unions offered them a chance - an imperfect chance, maybe. But a chance. Yet it seems that some, despite voting records and vocal rhetoric, couldn't stand when a stance was needed.
I was willing to dismiss her presence at all on their Board of Directors, but her apparent silence on union issues cannot, and should not, be dismissed. I've seen a diary here on DailyKos saying that she had to pick her battles, that her voice would have never made a difference, and that's the nature of employment - that sometimes you have to bite your tongue. But I have news for anyone who would think that this was meaningless. Hillary never, and will never, have to worry about losing her job, even then. There are no cushier gigs than being on the board of directors of a major corporation. In exchange for very little in the way of actual labor or contribution of any kind, directors are handsomely rewarded. Her husband was a prominent lawyer, then Attorney General, then Governor for more than 10 years, and she too was successful as an attorney. If she lost her job on the Wal-Mart board of directors for speaking up on behalf of workers, on behalf of those who needed a voice to say "We can't do this," she would have had a fall back. She would have had eight fall backs. Even if she didn't, her future was secure - unlike the workers she was throwing under the bus, she could go to sleep at night knowing that her workplace would be safe, that she would always have healthcare for her family, that she could afford her child's education, that her home would never be foreclosed upon.
The bottom line is that in this instance, with worlds of integrity to gain and only the prestige and reward of serving on Wal-Mart's Board of Directors to lose, she opted for the latter. She opted against doing the right thing. Even if she achieved nothing, she would have stood for something. Stood for something, the idea that all workers have basic rights, that in exchange for what they give, they may be entitled to some small essentials in return, essentials that she would never have to worry about, Wal-Mart or not.
She opted for the latter.