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Hilary Clinton wows 2,200 in Madison

By Pamela Gates

U.S. Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) spoke before an audience of over 2,200 at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center on April 28. The occasion was Wisconsin Women in Government’s 18th annual scholarship, recognition, and fund-raising dinner; and WWIG leaders were ecstatic about the “record-shattering” turnout, as current WWIG President Eve Galanter put it, for this worthy cause.

Wisconsin First Lady Jessica Doyle and WWIG Scholarship Chair Katie Mnuk presented this year’s winners of WWIG’s Scholars Program, which, according to the dinner’s program, “is designed to inspire women to consider careers in public service, public administration, and government affairs … to retain those who have already begun post-secondary education but who would have difficulty continuing without financial assistance.” Homa Azita Azargoshasb, Heidi Bremer, Barbara Gleason, Cynthia Meyer, Jolene Rueden, and Kabee Vue, women from all over Wisconsin, were the proud winners of the undergraduate scholarships. WWIG also offers a scholarship to the young woman elected governor at Badger Girls State if she chooses to attend a Wisconsin school, and to many women who have participated in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs public policy graduate seminar. Another of WWIG’s projects is the YWCA of Madison and Klinke Cleaners’ “Suited for Success” program, which offers free professional apparel to women entering the workforce. Former WWIG  President Michelle Kussow was specially recognized for her work with this program. WWIG Awards Chair Margaret Lewis gave U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) “First Women” awards for “making our paths a bit easier and breaking barriers. It took 150 years [1848-1998] for Wisconsin to elect its first female representative to Congress; eight years later, we elected a second woman, and the first woman of color,” Lewis said.

“Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay member of the Wisconsin Legislature, reaches across partisan divides and electrifies the young. She bears out the statement of Margaret Mead: ‘Never doubt that a small group of committed individuals can change the world: Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ Tammy, you make our democracy fuller by your work.

“Gwen Moore has always served others. She started her career under really difficult circumstances, as a poor, single-parent college student. She became a Vista Volunteer for the city of Milwaukee, was elected to the state Assembly, and was the first African American woman elected to the state Senate. She is a good negotiator who has always worked hard for her constituents; and in Congress she continues to work for jobs, education, peace, et cetera.

“The circle of what women do is ever evolving, as long as we keep doing the housework!” Lewis concluded.

Sen. Clinton, certainly the primary reason for the huge turnout, which filled both the huge Exhibition Hall and the Grand Ballroom of Monona Terrace, began her speech by connecting the national struggle for women’s suffrage to both her state, New York, and Wisconsin. The first equal rights gathering of women (and a few supporting men) was held in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848, she said. Of all the participants in this initial gathering, only a 12-year-old Fort Atkinson, Wis., girl ever actually got to vote: In 1920, at age 84, she cast her ballot for president of the United States. Clinton also spoke of the Richland Center, Wis., women’s club that began to work for suffrage in 1882; the motto of that club was, “Wise as serpents, harmless as doves.”  

Clinton noted that Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment  on June 10, 1919, which gave women the right to vote. After the amendment passed, she said, Wisconsin groups continued to work for full and equal civil rights for women.

Clinton observed that the struggle for full equality for women was pursued with increasing vigor in the 19th and 20th centuries. But, she said, it is still an unfulfilled promise for many women around the world, and there is still much to be done. “We cannot rest until every child who might aspire to public service can carry out that dream,” she said.

Clinton expressed great concern that “democracy is becoming a spectator sport. We must make sure that the next generation understands what the previous one has done. We must ask, ‘Why is there apathy about this fundamental right of voting? What kind of a nation are we building?’

“Every generation must chart its own course,” Clinton said. In the middle of the Civil War, she noted, people began building the transcontinental railroad  and the Homestead Act was passed. There is an extraordinary American spirit that is always pushing into the future, no matter how hard the times are, she said.

Sacrificing today for a better tomorrow is what is really at the root of the American dream, Clinton said. She pointed out that former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt worked in settlement houses, assisting new immigrants. “Why?” Clinton asked, and answered, “to ensure that the immigrants flooding into the country would become fully participatory in their new land.”

“What will the next generations say about us? How will they judge us?” Clinton asked. “We all have personal responsibilities,” she acknowledged, “but we must also be responsible in society. For example, we haven’t done enough to provide quality, affordable health care for all Americans. How will we keep our communities together and care for the vulnerable among us? Will we walk away?”  

Clinton moved next to the topic of education. “We have a great education system,” she said, “but there are places where kids are not learning. It’s getting harder and harder to go to college.” It’s beginning to look, she said, like the wealthier part of American society is saying to its poorer young people, “Your dreams are not our dreams.”

“How do we recreate the safety net of the past?” she asked. “What is our intergenerational response to one another?”

“One billion people on this earth live on less that $1 per day,” Clinton said. “I’ve been in many places with so little hope but so much energy. This is the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Conference in Beijing. That conference led to criminalizing the trafficking of women and children and criminalizing domestic violence.”

“America has been an inspiration to women around the world, and we, in turn, can take heart from the courage of women around the world,” she said. “We are at a turning point in American history. We face huge challenges, and we will need alliances, numbers, courage, and the spirit to plan for the future.”

“We have been so blessed to be citizens of this nation, and we must pass these blessings on,”Clinton said. “There isn’t anything like America, but it won’t operate on its own, on automatic. We must ask ourselves, what do we need to do today to make sure America continues on the right course?

“There has never been a better time or a better place to be alive as a woman than in 21st century America,” Clinton averred. “All those in the past knew what they were doing when they fought for our rights. We can’t let them, or our children, down.”

 The Madison audience gave Clinton a lengthy standing ovation, expressing appreciation for her speech and for her political work as a U.S. senator and a first lady. At least a fair number of the mostly female audience were also applauding the possibility that Clinton might be the nation's first female presidential candidate in 2008.