General Discussion

babylonsister

(171,070 posts) Fri Nov 16, 2012, 07:34 AM Nov 2012

Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm: Thank You, Nancy Pelosi

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-m-granholm/thank-you-nancy-pelosi_b_2134058.html

Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm
Former governor of Michigan; host, 'The War Room' on Current TV; columnist, Politico; faculty member, UC Berkeley

Thank You, Nancy Pelosi
Posted: 11/15/2012 1:38 am

snip//

Nancy Pelosi was elected to Congress at age 47, after she raised her family. Many of her male counterparts were elected in their thirties, presumably while their wives were raising the families. So of course they had more seniority, at each calendar year in their lives. She didn't regret her choices, but it is one reason why women don't get as many plum assignments -- they don't have the seniority.

So in staying on, she is looking out for those young women coming up, helping redefine seniority and status on her terms. I'm grateful and relieved to know it.

Third, no woman is more vilified by the right than Nancy Pelosi. Republicans use Pelosi as the whipping girl relentlessly, repeatedly, incessantly. Being the object of that much hatred and fear requires a backbone hard as steel and skin thick as a rhinoceros. Nancy Pelosi is 72; she's a grandmother with a large family. She could retire and laugh and read and maybe paint or take up a hobby instead of withstanding the slings and arrows of her antagonists.

But she chose to stay in the arena -- not for herself, but for all of us. For that, I am also grateful.

So I want to thank leader Pelosi for her decision to lead, in things big and small. The thousands of decisions being made every day by Nancy Pelosi and those she inspires will bend the arc of history toward justice, as Bobby Kennedy described it.

So thank you, ma'am, for not taking the easy way out. Thank you for your battle scars. Scars that show you're willing to fight worthy battles on our behalf.