Lets Keep It Simple Folks

Breaking Glass

As I am sure you all were aware by this point I am an ardent Hillary supporter, not so much for the womens' lib movement the fourth estate attached her to, but I felt she was the stronger candidate. She has the k-street smarts essential to getting anything done inside the beltway. So I was a little crushed when the end drew near on the campaign machine. But within hours of the media lynching, I received this email from the campaign. And I was compelled to hit the reply button.

My response: thank you.

Dear Hillary -

I say this to you almost daily, but since it's normally to you on the TV screen, I thought I should find a way of saying it where you might actually receive the message: Thank you.

Thank you for what you have done. For your sheer tenacity, strength, and stick-to-itiveness. Thank you for working so hard every day when you must have been exhausted. For showing us what leadership looks like: doing something well, with grace, in good times and bad. Most of all, I thank you for not quitting.

Your many supporters will tell you what your race means to them and history will write what it means to the world, but it also means so much to me and to the little world I live in. I thank you on behalf of the women who have been so special in my life:

For my daughter - who is, as of yet, just an idea in my mind. But I imagine her one day reading the story of this historic campaign. I am so grateful that the story she will read will be of a complete campaign, with the biggest numbers possible - states, votes, and delegates. That story will show that our first woman presidential contender was truly competitive - nearly won competitive - and show a little girl her own vast possibilities in this country. Thank you for giving her a history worth reading.

For my mother - who is one of those women who work tirelessly to support her family, worries over rising healthcare costs and frets that her grandchildren may not have social security. She's always been passionately interested in politics, but never before found a politician who she felt saw and understood her. She'll be 65 next year and she wrote the first political check of her life to you. Thank you for validating the day-to-day concerns that she faces.

For my grandmother - who was, as it was noted at her memorial, "a woman ahead of her time." I think of her every time I see one of your senior women supporters who were born before women first got the vote and were out on the streets filled with hope that they would inaugurate one in their lifetimes. Thank you for showing them that their efforts to make women loud and proud actors in American politics created real change.

For my best friend - who would listen to me talk about just about anything in the world for hours - except politics - until you started to run. Little by little, day by day, she became more engaged in your campaign and what it meant to the country and our place in the world. She started out reading your emails and went on to lobbying her husband and friends to change their votes. Thank you for awakening an incredible woman to her role in the political process.

For my former junior staffer- who did not necessarily believe that sexism was still an issue alive and well today. She watched pundit after pundit behave in ways that even she could not deny were ... crude. Then she saw it pass as kind of acceptable. And then she saw it happen again and again. Finally, she took up her pen and now Chris Matthews and the MSNBC brass know her name ... well. Thank you for reminding her of how much work we all still have to do.

For me - who has been, at times, described as direct, forward, forceful, pushy and a few other choice adjectives. Thank you for helping make the world a little safer for aggressive, ambitious women. Because isn't aggressive just one way of saying "she gets things done" and isn't ambition just another word for "dream?" Thank you for pushing for my dream - and that of so many others - to elect a phenomenally talented and capable woman to lead our country and change our world.

As you promised from the outset, you have, and will continue to, make history.

Thank you, for all us.

Sincerely,

Ilana Goldman

Back In The Day

...We didn't have to pay for lunch or luggage. What is going on people?

There is nothing that fries my ass more than hidden charges. Similar to the half truth response of ...you look great (except for the bang disaster you have going on..) airlines should be upfront with there costs. This makes absolutely no sense in the race to save a nickle. Rather than defiant fliers, like myself (see earlier article), paying the $15 charge for luggage and the $5 lunch box fee, I will be one of many trying to shove my overstuffed over weighted bag in the overhead compartment, not amenable for full flight capacity.

I, and 90% of my travel companions will have to wiggle back out of the narrow aisle to check my bag at the gate - ending up just were it would have original and without a silly surcharge. But with 300 fellow fliers following the same protocol, our flight is now delayed, the port authority has charged my airline and they will be forced not only to lay off my flight attendant (need my Diet Coke!), try to bump up my luggage charge, but now pass their late fees onto me. That's just silly folks.

Hello Lover!

New I-Phone's Debut...Right into Jen's Bag!

Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again. Katie -let's talk!