Dear Neighbors:
I'm sure at some time in your past, you have written a paragraph, a statement or an essay about a person you admire. You may have spent time researching your chosen individual in order to support your position, or you wrote the essay under a time constraint and with a prompt you weren't prepared to answer. When I was in college, I had to complete such an essay for a required writing assessment. My choice was the late Princess Diana.
I wasn't enamored of the whole princess routine. As far as I'm concerned, those people have titles with no real responsibility behind it. What I admired about Diana is that she went from being a mouse to a powerhouse -- not an easy thing to accomplish for such a quiet, shy woman. I was most impressed with her charity work. In general, I find public figures who adopt a cause to be disingenuous and insignificant. They pose for photo ops, give a little money here and there and decide that the awareness is enough before they move on to creating a clothing line or a bad song. Princess Diana was different. She backed causes that were unpopular at the time, such as children living with HIV and AIDS. She comforted those children not by staging photo opportunities, but by being there and holding them in her arms. To those children, she wasn't a princess; she was a bright light in a dark world.
I can't help but look up to Hillary Rodham Clinton. I wanted her to be our first female president and still do. Too many people still see her in the shadow of her husband; they condemn her for staying with a man who clearly finds it difficult to be faithful. Apparently, they forgot about the "for better or worse" part of the marriage vows. Hillary has her reasons for staying with her husband and it's none of our business what those reasons are. She was a rare first lady, having as many qualifications for president as she did for being the First Lady. Her own educational accomplishments are outstanding; in addition, she has shown a deep commitment to children and was responsible for leading the charge on bills that would ensure the safety of foster children, children without medical insurance, and veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange during Vietnam. Remember "It Takes A Village"? It does. Regardless of the scandals, the hatemongers and the Republicans who suggested that her commitment to politics went against "family values", she has and continues to remind us of the importance of making positive changes.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis embodied elegance and class throughout her life. She endured the heartbreaking losses of two children and one very beloved husband by the age of 34, but did so while maintaining her privacy and her dignity. She lost yet another husband but didn't let it stop her from living her life; she became a book editor as well as committing herself to preserving historical landmarks. She once said, "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." I only wish that today's high-profile mothers would follow that example.
Margaret Sanger spearheaded the birth control movement long before it was acceptable. Born to a mother who gave birth to 18 children (only 11 lived), she became a nurse and made it her mission to educate women and girls about their own bodies and about birth control. At the time, women had no rights in that regard -- no rights to their own bodies! She saw the abject poverty that was caused by having too many children, too close together and decided to do something about it. Keeping women pregnant was a good way of keeping them under the control of men, and this was her platform in encouraging contraception. Sanger tended to women who had undergone botched abortions while their doctors told them that abstinence was the only option for birth control. What the doctors did not tell their patients was how to safely deny their husbands sex. Soon, she was traveling around the country giving lectures on birth control. One particular lecture to the women of the KKK was especially well-received. Sanger's contributions to women's rights are endless, but her work led to the formation of Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics. She took an unpopular stance and lived to see birth control become legalized when she was 87 years old. Where would we, as women, be without birth control?
Finally, I must admit that there aren't many modern, young women who I find admirable these days, but I'll get to that in my next blog. My last contribution is a young lady named Elizabeth Smart. We all know her story; she was kidnapped from her own home and forced to become the plural wife of her captor at the age of 14. Elizabeth was found nine months later and has been tight-lipped about her experiences. She participated in a minimum of television interviews and, for the most part, has stayed out of the spotlight since. The book and television movie that followed were made with her family's approval, but only so they would have a say in the content. Elizabeth reappeared in the public eye when her captors were tried and sentenced, and she handled herself maturely and responsibly when Nancy Grace tried to get her to spill the dirty details on television. None of what happened to her is anyone's business but hers, and I can't help but admire her steadfast refusal to divulge those details. Such a horrific experience might have given her an excuse to engage in all sorts of outlandish behavior, but Elizabeth Smart continues to attend college and exemplify how to put the past in the past.
These Women Rock,
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