The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/113992
Women Plant Ideas for Future Leaders Last March, Meryl Streep introduced then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the 2012 Women of the World summit. At the climax of her tribute, Streep mentioned activist Anabella De Leon, who at a previous conference pointed at Clinton and said "I met her and my life changed." Then, America's most talented actor spoke from the perspective of the scores of women who have conveyed gratitude to Hillary Clinton: "I'm alive because she came to my village, put her arm around me, and had a photograph taken together. I'm alive because she went on our local TV and talked about my work, and now they're afraid to kill me." Streep called this detailed, female-centered, person-to-person lifesaving and life-affirming work Hillary's hidden history: "The story of her parallel agenda, the shadow diplomacy unheralded, uncelebrated, careful, constant work on behalf of women and girls that she has always conducted alongside everything else a first lady, a senator, and now Secretary of State obliged to do." As Hillary Clinton (at least temporarily) steps down from public service, it's time to examine what her life — and in particular her two decades on the world stage — has meant for America, for women, and for diversity in action. As First Lady, Hillary Clinton defied her husband's nervous male advisers and made a major speech in Bejjing where she declared that "women's rights are human rights." Since then, she lived her words. As secretary of state, she set travel records. She visited not only national leaders, but also, less common for her position, villagers and local community pillars. As Streep mentioned, Clinton's prioritization (unprecedented in American high office) of women around the world, her mere interaction with them on a personal level, saved countless lives of local boatrockers and emboldened further female leaders. Upon her exit, Clinton was praised as a competent and effective, but not "great," 10 O-Town Scene March 7, 2013 secretary of state. According to these writers, greatness requires a secretary less subservient to the president, one who breaks free to spearhead grand changes on the world stage. This, of course, is the testosterone talk of ego. Hillary Clinton never set out to be a "great" secretary, at least not in this fashion. Her focus was more subtle, more personal, and more direct. Hers was not a quest for honors on a world stage, but an honest effort to honor the power of women around the world. Her generosity to women worldwide most certainly made ripples, most assuredly affecting the zeitgeist of the times. Hillary, the beneficiary of hard-working women who came before, was planting seeds across the earth for future harvests. Hillary demonstrated a female notion of greatness, one that values personal trust and the fostering of local leaders over the headline grabbing stabs at history favored by "great" secretaries past. Hers was a demonstration of diversity in action, of what we gain when we entrust women with powerful positions in government. On the Supreme Court, as Dana Milbank reports, Obama appointees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor are demonstrating a more muscular interpretation of feminine leadership by finally standing up to the loud conservative wing dominated by Antonin Scalia. In contrast to the diplomatic and relatively quiet Clinton appointees Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Obama's lady justices are assertive, questioning, and quick-witted on the bench, frequently interrupting to make points, challenge assumptions, or ask pointed questions. Indeed, Milbank characterized it as standing up to the "bully" that is Scalia. This matters at the nine-person high Associated Press Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton embraces Triza Lapani, 17, on Aug. 5 after the teen helped Clinton put on a traditional chitenje cloth skirt while speaking at Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) run by the Peace Corps in Lilongwe, Malawi. table that is the Supreme Court. Perspective and personality can change the tone and directions of the proceedings, a comment or a question can change a mind, and a changed vote can change history. America's first female Speaker of the House and current House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tells a fascinating story from 2006, when she became the most powerful woman in America: "My first official occasion as a member of the House leadership was to go to the White House to meet with the president. Although I had been to the White House for meetings many times before, I had never been to a meeting quite like this. "Indeed, no woman ever had. As the president started talking, I began to feel very squeezed in my chair. It was getting more and more crowded. It was as if every woman who had worked to promote women's opportunity was sitting on the chair with me. "Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and every other pioneer who fought to gain the right to vote for women, the right to be treated equal in the workplace, and the ability to make the decisions affecting their own lives and careers. 'Then I heard them say, 'At last we have a seat at the table.' And then they were gone." Clio, the Muse of History, is always watching, always writing. The day-to-day may seem trivial or mundane, but a grander narrative is at stake, and there are moments that will reverberate for eons. The rise of women has been a floral revolution — seeds have been planted over the centuries and it has been growing slowly underground — and now it begins to bloom. Kevin Eggleston is a playwright and teacher. He can be reached at keggles88@gmail. com.