Exit Stage Left

I have long been a political fanatic. It all started during the '88 election: the year I realized that I was among the minority in my at-the-time-home state of Nevada by being a *gasp* Democrat and proudly announced to my fifth grade class that I may very well become the first woman President of the United States. At the time I was 25 years from even being legally eligible to hold the highest office in the land and thankfully I didn't even know how ridiculous it sounded that we would have to wait a quarter of a century to have a woman President. What an absolutely asinine concept. After all, Great Britain had a female Prime Minister in 1979; surely the citizens of the U.S. would come to their senses sooner than the election of 2016--when I'll be 38 and therefore legally eligible to run for President...if I so choose--or would they? Apparently I was wrong.

When Bill Clinton was elected to office in '92 I was an instant Clinton-atic. I couldn't get enough of his charisma, his charm and his wit. I couldn't get enough of her insatiable desire to be a different kind of a First Lady. Unfortunately the rest of the country wasn't ready to have a ball buster as the President's wife and her agenda turned quickly from health care and being a "voice for children" to that of a ceremonial figure meaning Easter egg hunts and lighting of Christmas Trees. "Women should be seen and not heard" apparently, and we're getting closer to 2016 all the while.

Three years ago in April I was visiting my friend, Heather, in Washington, D.C. and she had a bumper sticker hanging above her desk that said: Hillary '08: A Woman's Place is in the House...the White House." I almost stole that bumper sticker right off the cork board on which it hung and apparently Heather sensed my coveting because no more than two weeks later my own bumper sticker arrived in the mail. It was immediately placed in the back window of my car right beneath my "University of the Pacific" banner decal and there it has hung for three solid years. Rain and 100 plus degree days and at least two bona fide blizzards and that bumper sticker has held on...both before and after Hillary's official declaration of her candidacy. I like to think of it as an omen; a small representation of just what Hillary has to offer.

I've never been one to shy away from a sensitive social topic, so my next post will focus on the non-emotional reasons why I caucused for and will, if given the opportunity, vote for Hillary.