Gabrielle Giffords, the US Democratic Congresswoman who was shot last year, gave a deeply moving speech this week to advise that she was stepping down from her position in order to focus on her recovery.
In her speech, Ms. Giffords spoke about changing things for the better and, as her mother said in a separate interview, her speech about change was no longer just political, it was personal. “I think Gabby’s got a message now”, her mother said and then she paused “that exceeds the political one.” Yes. And how could she not with all that she’s been through and as we remember Christina -Taylor Green, the nine year old girl who was also shot after going to see Gabby Giffords because she wanted to learn more about democracy and about the kind of person she could become. Christina didn’t make it and yet her dream of being a young citizen participant in the democratic process was broadcast to millions.
For Gabby Giffords it’s been a slow and remarkable recovery, with her astronaut husband Mark Kelly by her side and supported by a host of medical practitioners, physical therapists and other therapists including a music therapist – ‘music for breakthroughs’. Giffords’ optimism is one of the most striking qualities about her. Maybe that’s what happens to some people when they come so close to death – they re-emerge radiant with life. The couple will be at President Obama’s State of the Union address this week and I bet it will be emotional for them and for everyone else watching this address.
It’s been snowing in New York and in other parts of the country over the last few days while various Republican candidates seem to have been doing their own snow job on Americans as the countdown to Presidential candidacy draws ever nearer. Wives of the (all male) Republican candidates are playing their own role. Some are high profile in their engagement while others, like Newt Gingrich’s wife, Callista Gingrich, seems to be better known for other reasons. According to The New Yorker, Callista’s husband, Republican candidate, Newt Gingrich, sat next to his wife and a man in an elephant costume who played Ellis the Elephant to promote a children’s book written by Mrs. Gingrich called Sweet Land of Liberty. The book is about an elephant who travels through American history delivering lessons in rhyming couplets. People lined up for autographs with the author and her elephant friend while Mr. Gingrich waited on the side.
On the Democratic side there is another form of waiting — speculation about whether Hillary Clinton may be appointed Vice President if President Obama is re-elected, with Joe Biden becoming Secretary of State in a neat switch of roles. This would segue nicely into a Hillary Clinton for President campaign in 2016 and, if it went according to plan, it would keep the Democrats in power for over twelve years. Though of course a day is a long time in politics, never mind another five years.
Robert Reich cites the latest Gallup poll as President Obama and Mrs. Clinton being this year’s most admired man and woman, with Hillary Clinton topping the list 16 times, outranking even former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who made it to the top of the list 13 times.
There is a sense of momentum happening, even during mushy cold New York winter days. Maybe it’s fueled by the Occupy Movement and by citizen movements rising up across the world. Who would have predicted what has happened in Burma in recent weeks any more than we would have foreseen peace in Northern Ireland and the Berlin Wall coming down in Germany all those years ago.
In some quarters, at least, people seem to be reclaiming their power to make change possible, or at least to make their vote count. Even some of the 1% are directing funds to where they can do the most good. Last week I was contacted by some consultants who were putting together a report for a group of major investors wanting to invest millions in programs and initiatives that would address some of the seemingly intractable issues associated with achieving better maternal health outcomes and other health improvements for women in developing countries. In other places, investors are joining with NGOs to advocate for corporations to ensure these corporations have policies in place so that they are not seen to be complicit with human rights abuses through the decision-making and investment they undertake in countries where such abuse is rife.
People also seem to be getting their share of life and love on the web too. The other day a friend sent me a post of a man who was living rough on the streets of Santa Barbara. He had a dog and a cat and he rigged up a harness on the dog for the cat so she wouldn’t get tired when they walked. So the dog walked along and the cat sat on top and then at some point a friendly rat sat on the cat and they all got along merrily. It was the Mayor of Santa Barbara who posted the video, in which tourists daily seem to take this literal picture of animal harmony and love as a message of hope for what might be possible between people and between political parties, and even between countries.
And so, in a week of elephants, dogs, cats and rats and political acts – where I kind of feel like I’m in my own Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham Sam-I-am zone – I’m glad I can embrace the hush of a snow bound apartment and curl up and read a book with pages that turn, rather flip a kindle. For the moment I’ll leave change at the door.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where she works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
Jane Sloane