I read a conversation on Facebook between numerous people about why they didn’t vote: They all crowed and shared humor over how they’d shown the DNC it couldn’t take their votes for granted. This is my response: You didn’t vote? You deny your portion of culpability for this outcome, and tell yourself, “What difference does it make?” You didn’t vote to show the DNC they couldn’t take your vote for granted? This wasn’t some existential exercise in democracy. This was protecting this nation and the entire free world from a fascist despot. Yeah, you showed the DNC.
You didn’t vote? Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST African Americans who’ll now have to live with stop-and-frisk profiling. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST Muslim Americans who will now be on a database. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST immigrants. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST the environment, against children like those of Flint Michigan. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST women and girls who’s futures are now in the hands of a self-proclaimed sexual predator. Yep, you showed the DNC.
You didn’t vote? Well, then, with your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my keeping my cancer doctors and my heart doctors. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant, funny, Christian son with a heart for charitable activism – who also happens to be Iranian-American because he’s the son of an Iranian-American who was himself a political refugee thirty years ago. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant son’s future – he’s entering DukeTIP this year, but that won’t matter because the DOE is on the chopping block and college will be priced so far out of his reach that it’s become a fantasy. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST every single person in this country at risk from a Trump presidency. With your non-vote, you voted FOR Trump. Sure, that showed the DNC.
Do you have children? Or want children? Your non-vote just voted AGAINST their future. You sit comfortably wreathed in your self-entitled apathy and convince yourself your angry complaisance is justified. You choose to acquiesce to all the Hate that Trump promises. Oh yeah… you showed the DNC!
YOU have driven a nail in my coffin. YOU have left my twelve year old son to watch his mother die. YOU have left my twelve year old son – already being called ISIS and terrorist, and threatened that Trump will send him to the gas chambers – to live in fear. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear for his father every time he walks out the door. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear the America he was born into. You really showed the DNC.
“What difference does it make?” Well, from a dead woman walking, it’s the difference between life and death.
I’ve seen commentary and even articles and blogs now telling people it’s okay NOT to vote. In case you missed it, the people who want you NOT to vote are the people with whom you disagree. These are the same people who are always telling us not to discuss politics or social issues or religion or really anything in life that matters. Why do they tell us not to discuss those things? Why do they tell us to just laugh it off and get on with life when we are at risk over those issues? Why do they want us to be silent? These are the people who tell us it’s just the way life is. We’re supposed to just laugh it off… carry on… let it go… deal with it. But, we’re not supposed to actually CHALLENGE it. Think about that: Precisely who is served by our just accepting the way things are? IT IS NOT OKAY TO SIT OUT THE ELECTION. Your vote is your voice.Anyone who tells you it is okay NOT to vote is telling you to sit down and shut up. They are trying to silence your voice. The apathetic or complaisant voter sitting out elections is how the extremists on both sides have been able to cripple our government. The extreme partisanship of our current government is directly the fault of those voters who choose NOT to vote. Look, that’s been me on midterm elections for all my voting life. That’s been me for all those local elections and referendums. That’s been me for a couple of the POTUS elections. I’ve been a middle-of-the-road independent voter for decades – I was always one of those moderates we keep hearing about. When I’ve voted, I’ve voted for a combination of Democrat and Republican candidates. Yes, I’ve been apathetic about elections, just like you. I was wrong. Voters like me and you and every other moderate should have been the voices of reason and compromise. We sat back and let the extremes from both sides push their uncompromising agendas with a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing fervor that resulted in all out obstruction for no other reason except partisan obstruction, government shutdowns, and ultimately, TRUMP. You were wrong. Yes… Trump is my fault. Trump is your fault. Every apathetic voter in America is more at fault for the rise of Trump than the GOP, the Alt-Right, or the media. We sat back and let our America become a place that gave rise to Trump. We were wrong. VOTE. It is our citizen duty to vote. Democracy is ours to preserve – or to let slip away. Research the candidates and make an informed choice. Vote every single time there’s an election. Don’t be told who to vote – LEARN for yourself who to vote for. Vote for the candidates whose actual documented record meets with your approval. Don’t let rhetoric form your choice or make you think your vote doesn’t count. VOTE as if the future depends on it. But, remember, you’re not really voting for yourself – you are voting for your children… for women and girls… for minorities… for veterans… for the disabled… for the working poor… for the middle class… for all the average workaday Americans. Or, you vote against them by not voting because you allow the extreme right and the extreme left to silence YOU. Vote because your vote is your voice – don’t let anyone silence you. VOTE. VOTE like your child’s life depends upon it – BECAUSE IT DOES! “Apathy is acquiescence is compliance is approval.” ~MomzillaNC “Hands and hearts and minds and voices committed to working for tolerance, peace and social justice everywhere, always.” ~MomzillaNC
I keep seeing Bernie’s supporters saying that four years of Trump won’t destroy America. If you think this country can survive four or eight years of Trump, you’ve not paid attention to history. Democracy can fall… yes, even in America. If a man is elected who says he’ll command our troops to commit war crimes, our American constitutional democratic republic will fall. If a man who openly calls for foreign espionage upon Americans is elected, democracy in the nation will fall. If a man is elected who does not honor our allied agreements and contemplates nuclear holocaust even against our allies, American democracy will die – and it will take the whole world with it.
If you think our America can survive Trump, you’ve not been paying attention to the words that are coming from his mouth – he is not speaking Venusian… He’s not even speaking English as an American… Trump’s only language is one of greed and fear and anger and hate.
I cannot fathom how anyone cannot see that Trump’s entire life stands in contrast to Hillary’s entire life. Moreover, no Bernie supporter can deny that Everything about Trump, for his entire life, stands in the utmost stark contrast to Bernie Sanders’ entire life. So, okay… Bernie didn’t win the nomination. However, Bernie’s revolution has created real and substantive change in the DNC – at least as much change in this past year as all the combined change since the Civil Right’s Movement. I genuinely believe that Bernie’s revolution will go down in history on the list just behind the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Movement. Anyone who walks away from the DNC now walks away from that real progressive advancement and the hard fought changes Bernie Sanders brought to the entire ideal of progressivism and within the DNC. Anyone who serves personal animosity over that substantive change Bernie Sanders has already made and will continue to make has given in to animosity and turned their back on hope – has given in to defeat… has given in to fear and anger… has given in to hate.
I get it: Protest votes feel good – they’re the equivalent of using dad’s prized World Series baseball, signed by the whole winning team, to play fetch with the dog. You showed him! Dad’s baseball is destroyed forever, but… Ultimately, you’re the one who ends in the doghouse.
Voting for the hope that is the foundation of the platform of the DNC is not rewarding anyone for perceptions of misbehavior. It is as simple as embracing Bernie’s revolutionary ideal of hope. That is the real choice we make with our votes; we choose either fear or hope.
On a personal note, I will NEVER vote for anyone who doesn’t already know that America is still the greatest country and the strongest democracy on this earth. I will NEVER vote FOR anger and animosity. I will NEVER vote FOR fear.
I will be marching #ForwardIntoHope with the DNC and Bernie Sanders and Madam President, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Most definitely, #ImWithHer. For those still struggling to decide, I hope you will read on to learn why I am with her and why I believe all of America should be with her. I’ve seen more than one social media request for someone to be convinced why they should vote for Hillary Clinton… asking to be convinced of her merits.
I would begin by recommending you read the book (available free online), The Hunting of Hillary. Also, please consider her well documented accomplishments which I believe more than qualifies her for POTUS better than any candidate in our lifetimes. This is my challenge. Use my results, research them for yourself.
She has been on the national forefront of progressive democrats as First Lady, as Senator, as well as Secretary of State for the last quarter century. Here is a summary of her numerous accomplishments:
First ever student commencement speaker at Wellesley College
Distinguished graduate of Yale Law School
Former Director of the Arkansas Legal Aid Clinic
Former civil litigation attorney
Former Law Professor at the University of Arkansas
School of Law. Former First Lady of Arkansas
Former First Lady of the United States
First FLOTUS in US History to hold a postgraduate degree
First ex-FLOTUS in US History to be elected to the United States Senate
Elected by the State of New York to serve two terms in the Senate
Former US Secretary of State
GRAMMY Award Winner.
Author
A democrat and progressive all her adult life
Her healthcare plan in the 90s failed due to Republican obstructionism (yeah, even back then), but undeniably laid the foundation for the Affordable Healthcare Act, which she supports and will continue and expand upon.
She took a leading role in developing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, assuring state support for children whose parents can’t afford nor provide adequate healthcare.
She was instrumental in creating the Adoption and Safe Families Act and the Foster Care Independence Act.
She won the fight to increase research funding for prostate cancer and asthma at the NIH.
She spearheaded investigations into mental illness veterans of the Gulf War suffer; those investigations gave us the term: Gulf War Syndrome.
At the DOJ, she helped establish the office of Violence Against Women.
She helped get over $21 billion in funding for the World Trade Center redevelopment.
She took a leading role in the investigation of health consequences for emergency responders.
It was Hillary who drafted the first bill to compensate and offer the health services our emergency responders deserve – Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary’s successor got the bill passed. In 2003 Senator Clinton secured funding to repay Harriet Tubman’s estate her well deserved Civil War pension for her services to the Union Army – those funds were approved for use, not just to honor her, but also in preserving her home.
She was instrumental in hammering out a bi-partisan compromise addressing civil liberty abuses for the renewal of the Patriot Act.
To help homeowners refinance their mortgages and save their homes after the 2008 crash, Hillary tried to bring back something like the New Deal-era Home Owners’ Loan Corporation.
Her activism for raising the minimum wage is indisputable and LONG precedes this election, –even if you think she wasn’t demanding a high enough increase, you cannot deny she has always been part of the call for an increase. Read some of her statements about her efforts in 2007 at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=93079
Hillary was a major proponent of sensible diplomacy and working to negotiate a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
The Clinton Foundation, she and Bill founded, worked to improve living conditions for almost 400 million people in over 180 countries with its Initiative program. The Clinton Foundation negotiated affordable drug prices for AIDS medication for over eleven million people around the world.
She’s renowned for her undeniable and tireless activism on behalf of children and women all across the world.
She was on the ground, in Texas, face to face and door to door registering voters and supporting groups like Caesar Chavez’s and activism on behalf of farm laborers.
She put herself at personal risk to go undercover in the desegregated South to expose continuing segregationism and discrimination in private Southern schools.
She understands climate science and recognizes the need for definitive action (though I, do agree her evolution on the topic has been rather slow). She said, “The science of climate change is unforgiving, no matter what the deniers may say. Sea levels are rising; ice caps are melting; storms, droughts and wildfires are wreaking havoc. … If we act decisively now we can still head off the most catastrophic consequences.”
She’s been highlighting the link between climate change to women’s rights since at least as far back as 2010, when, as Secretary of State, she lead the way in launching the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership led by the United Nations Foundation, with the aim of deploying 100 million clean cookstoves in the developing world by 2020.
She will uphold Obama’s landmark power-plant rules and will veto any congressional Republican effort to repeal the rules.
She’s always worked for the interests of children and demanded more from our government on their behalf. As far back as 1983, as Arkansas’ First Lady, she chaired the Arkansas Education Standards Committee, working with every county recommending improved inclusivity for students with disabilities in public schools. She has a long history of supporting the disabled and the ADA
Moreover, we all – every breathing intellect – evolve our perspectives with time. She has always worked for progressive issues all her adult life. Yes, her perspectives continue to evolve ever and ever toward ever more progressive stances that “We the People” have told her matter to us. Don’t “We the People” ultimately want our leaders to listen to us and don’t we want them to evolve their perspectives to meet our perspectives and our needs?
I’ve provided ample, documented proofs that she is more than qualified, perhaps more qualified than any person ever to seek the office. I have not mentioned that reprobate despot, Trump, nor his gilded sh*tstorm.
As for charges against her, they are all the GOP’s talking points. Bernie has endorsed her and you must acknowledge that when they served together in the Senate, they voted identically ninety-seven percent of the time.
What folks seem to be missing, in their struggles to trust her, is that the GOP themselves have spent the last quarter century, and by now probably billions of our hard earned taxpayer dollars, repeatedly proving her NOT GUILTYwith their never-ending witch hunts. All else is just rhetoric and unsubstantiated accusations. Either the GOP is blatantly lying… or they are rampantly incompetent – I opt for both. The only thing they’ve really achieved in the last three and half decades is to convince half the nation that the RULE OF LAW in America, still predicated upon the principle – for now, at least – of “innocent until PROVEN guilty” need never apply to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
And, as we all know, nothing so enrages the witch hunter than for the so-called “witch” to be NOT GUILTY. How DARE she be NOT GUILTY! Crucify her anyway!
I have not mentioned Bernie’s endorsement before now. Let me point out that Bernie never repeated any of those GOP talking points. He cannot accused of being any kind of democratic insider. However, he is a Washington insider and has been on the scene for the entirety of the never ending assaults Hillary has born this past quarter century.
BERNIE IS AN EYEWITNESS.
If you, his supporters, truly believe in him and support his positions, how can you deny Bernie’s eyewitness experience of her? He did not have to endorse her. He could have taken Jill Stein’s offer to step aside and let him be the candidate for her party. He could have run as an independent – he is still the longest serving and most successful independent I know of in government. Bernie Sanders has always held fast to his high ideals; he has never let up his rhetoric of social justice for every American.
Do you believe Bernie Sanders willfully capable of immoral or corrupt decisions? How can you, his supporters, believe he would ever endorse someone he did not truly believe in, someone of whom he did not have intimate, eyewitness knowledge assuring him that she is the best person for the job?
I remember my own struggle to come around to supporting Obama in 2008 after Hillary lost – it took me until well into the Fall to choose to follow her lead and support Obama; and no one demeaned me for taking that time. I am a person who looks to hope and tries to see the best in people. And I see so much good in the Bernie Sanders supporters, so much real dedication and will to make their world a better place. I trust their intelligence and I trust their progressive hearts enough to believe that the vast majority will follow Bernie’s lead and vote for Hillary.
Permit me to clarify: First, a disclaimer I’m not a lawyer or teacher or an historian, etc. I’m an artist and writer who relies upon in-depth research to make my choices rather than being spoon-fed a rhetoric of masturbatory vigilanteism from a GOP that is either lying about her or is incompetent – again, I opt for both.
I have a lot to say in her defense because I want to share the results of my research. None of it is hidden or secret – it’s all out there in the libraries (they’re still free for everyone and even accessible online now), in archives, and across the Internet. I want to motivate people to check my research, to look beyond the GOP’s empty rhetoric that Hillary Clinton must-must-must have gotten away with something just because the GOP haven’t been able to convict her of anything ina quarter century of FAILED, taxpayer-funded witch hunts.
We all watched the four days of the RNC convention – that event was nothing less than pure, rage-strangled masturbatory vigilanteism. One could easily imagine the crowd screaming in blind rage, “Burn the witch!” or “Crucify her!”
I have a lot to say because people are perverting my Faith and my ideals of this constitutional democratic republic in their unreasoning new RELIGION of Hillary-hating. I have a lot to say because the world is being consumed by hate and if people of compassion and hope can’t lead us all back from the brink, then humanity will self-destruct and we will eradicate ourselves.
LIST OF SOME OF THE AWARDS & HONORS HILLARY CLINTON HAS RECEIVED
1983, Clinton was named Arkansas Woman of the Year by the Arkansas Democrat.
1983, Clinton was named Headliner of the Year by the Arkansas Press Association.
Around 1983 or 1984, Hillary and Bill Clinton were named Public Citizens of the Year by the Arkansas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
1984, Clinton was named Arkansas (Young) Mother of the Year by the Arkansas Association of American Mothers.
the mid-1980s, Clinton was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
1988 and 1991, Clinton was named by National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers America.
An exhibit at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center also honors Hillary Rodham Clinton's time as First Lady of the United States.
May 1993, Clinton received an honorary doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. She also served as the university's commencement speaker that year.
Around 1994, Clinton received the Living Legacy Award from the Women's International Center, recognition of "her vast contributions so many fields, especially honoring her work for women and children."
1994, a special variety of tulip was cultivated and named for her The Netherlands; it was still being grown as of the late 2000s.
1995, the New York University Annual Survey of American Law dedicated its 52nd volume to Clinton. Each spring since 1942 the NYU Annual Survey has dedicated a volume to a preeminent attorney. On hand to honor Clinton were Former Secretary of the Treasury and United States Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, United States Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, and United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
June 1995, Mount Saint Vincent University awarded Clinton an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Clinton won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for It Takes a Village during the Grammy Awards of 1997.
1997, Clinton was given the Lincoln Medal from the Ford's Theatre Society, presented annually to "individuals who, through their body of work, accomplishments or personal attributes, exemplify the lasting legacy, and mettle of character embodied by" Abraham Lincoln.
May 1998, Clinton received the United Arab Emirates Health Foundation Prize for her work health and social welfare, especially as it related to women, children, and families.
April 1999, Clinton was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund for her support of that Ukrainian organization's efforts regarding legacy effects of the Chernobyl accident.
June 1999, Clinton received the Mother Teresa Award, the highest honor given to civilians by Albania. This was recognition of her humanitarian efforts following the Kosovo War and worldwide.
March 26, 2004, Clinton was presented with the inaugural Nursing Health and Humanity Award from the University of Rochester School of Nursing.
August 26, 2004, Clinton was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, (LLD) by the University of Ulster.
February 13, 2005, Clinton was awarded the German Media Prize 2004. "Hillary Clinton is a model politician for millions of women around the world" who "represents an exemplary way women's rights", the jury for the prize said.
February 15, 2005, Clinton was given the American Medical Women's Association's President’s Vision & Voice Award, for being an advocate for women's health and related issues.
May 2005, Clinton received an honorary doctorate from Agnes Scott College near Atlanta for being a "defender of human rights" and "a resolute defender of the rights of women and girls."
July 30, 2005, Clinton was given the Reserve Officers Association's National President's Award.
September 2005, Clinton initially accepted but later rejected honorary membership into Alpha Kappa Alpha due to its exclusive requirements which would prevent her from accepting honorary membership other National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations.
October 9, 2005, Clinton was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
April 2006, Clinton was honored with the Remembrance Award from the Northeastern New York Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.
June 14, 2006, Clinton received an Energy Leadership Award from the United States Energy Association's Energy Efficiency Forum, recognition of her leadership on energy issues.
During 2007, Clinton was awarded an honorary doctorate medicine by the University of Gothenburg Sweden, for being "a strong advocate for increased investment medical research" and for "raising awareness of the increased health problems linked to obesity, poor quality food and physical inactivity."
Senator Clinton was named Person of the Year 2007 by Irish America magazine.
2008, Clinton was named NY1's New Yorker of the Year.
January 17, 2009, Senator Clinton received the Salute to Greatness Award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Newsweek ranked her as the 13th most powerful person on the planet, and the most powerful American woman, its "Global Elite" for 2009.
Clinton received the Global Trailblazer award from Vital Voices Global Partnership, for "her passionate commitment to promoting women's rights and securing justice for all people around the world."
March 27, 2009, Clinton received the Margaret Sanger Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which the organization says "recognize[s] leadership, excellence, and outstanding contributions to the reproductive health and rights movement."
May 13, 2009, Clinton received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from New York University and spoke at their 177th commencement at new Yankee Stadium.
May 18, 2009, Clinton received Barnard College's highest award, the Barnard Medal of Distinction, as she spoke at their commencement.
May 25, 2009, Clinton received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Yale University, from whose law school she had graduated three dozen years earlier.
May 25, 2009, Clinton received an award from the National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes, for "unprecedented steps taken the right direction on Hellenic and Orthodox issues".
During 2009, Clinton received the Freedom Medal, part of the Four Freedoms Awards from the Roosevelt Institute.
October 5, 2010, Secretary Clinton was given the George McGovern Leadership Award by the World Food Programme, for "her commitment and visionary approach to ending global hunger."
April 15, 2011, Clinton received the Walther-Rathenau-Preis Berl "for outstanding contributions to international understanding and cooperation".
June 2, 2011, Secretary Clinton was given the George C. Marshall Foundation Award for a career of distinguished public service, and particular, "for her dignity and integrity of character, for her devotion to creating and perpetuating free and democratic institutions, and for promoting appropriate economic development that will allow them to flourish."
2012, she was chosen as one of Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People of the year.
March 2012, Arkansas' largest airport, Little Rock, was renamed to Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field.
April 2012, Clinton received a Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service.
May 24, 2012, Clinton was given the Champions for Change Award for Leadership by the International Center for Research on Women, " recognition of her long-standing dedication to empowering women and girls worldwide and ensuring their human rights."
December 2012, the Saban Center for Middle East Policy's annual Saban Forum honored Clinton with a keynote speech introduced by an eight-minute video that featured several foreign leaders and considerable praise from Israeli leaders Benjamin Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, Shimon Peres, and Ehud Barak.
Belfast - December 8, 2012, Clinton was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Worldwide Ireland Funds, recognition of her efforts for peace and reconciliation Northern Ireland during her time as First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State.
January 15, 2013, Clinton was awarded the Philippine Legion of Honor.
Presented with the 2013 Chatham House Prize by Prince Andrew, Duke of York
February 14, 2013, two weeks after stepping down as Secretary of State, Clinton was given Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest Pentagon medal given to private citizens or politicians. Both Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta praised the unusually cooperative relationship the two departments had during Clinton's tenure.
May 8, 2013, Clinton was honored by the Pacific Council on International Policy with the inaugural Warren Christopher Public Service Award.
July 8, 2013, the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children's Library and Learning Center was dedicated Little Rock, Arkansas, having recently been named that by the Central Arkansas Library System. Clinton read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to mark the occasion.
August 28, 2013, the British international affairs think tank Chatham House voted Clinton as the 2013 winner of the Chatham House Prize " recognition of her personal leadership driving a new era of US diplomatic engagement and for her particular focus on promoting education and rights for women and girls"
September 10, 2013, the National Constitution Center awarded Clinton the 2013 Liberty Medal for her positions public service and for her advocacy efforts towards more rights for women and girls worldwide.
September 13, 2013, the University of St Andrews conferred an honorary Doctor of Law degree onto her recognition of her "roles as politician, diplomat and champion of education, human rights, democracy, civil society, and opportunities for women and girls around the world."
Beginning February 2014, the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women Peace and Security have been given by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, of which Clinton is the Honorary Founding Chair.
May 3, 2014, Hillary Rodham Clinton received the Order of Lincoln, the highest award of the State of Illinois, where she was born and raised.
December 16, 2014, Clinton received a Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
2014, Clinton was named by Glamour magazine as one of "The 75 Most Important Women of the Past 75 Years."
March 3, 2015, Clinton accepted the "We Are Emily" award from Emily's List.
March 16, 2015, Clinton was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame.
June 4, 2015, Clinton received the first Barbara Jordan Public-Private Leadership Award, named honor of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and given to "a deserving woman anywhere the world who has made the highest achievement during the preceding year or years any honorable field of human endeavor the public or private sector."
November 19, 2015, Clinton received the first Mario M. Cuomo Visionary Award.
June 2016, a bust of Clinton was unveiled the ma square of the Albanian city Saranda.
Clinton was named by Americans Gallup's most admired man and woman poll as the woman around the world they most admired 1993–94, 1997–2000, and 2002–15. The woman of the year 2015 was her fourteenth a row and twentieth overall. She has held the top spot the poll longer than any other woman or man Gallup's history of asking the most admired question.
Clinton has been ranked on their list of the world's most powerful people by Forbes magazine. She was listed as 5th most powerful 2004, 26th 2005, 18th 2006, 28th 2008, 36th 2009, 2nd 2011, 2nd 2012, 5th 2013,6th 2014, and 58th 2015.
Clinton has been named ten times Time magazine's Time 100 as one of the 100 most influential people the world. Years this happened were 2004 (as part of The Clintons), 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016. addition, November 2010, Time named Clinton one of the 25 most powerful women of the past century.
Clinton has been named three times as Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the year, 1993, 2003, and 2013.
Wikipedia provided the simplest bare list, but I verified most of the items with additional research of the sources provided with the list.
One of my earliest memories is of my parents taking me into the voting booth with them. I watched as they placed an “X” by each choice they made. What was fascinating to me was that their ballots didn’t always match. They would study the positions of each candidate in the newspaper in the days leading up to the election. This exercise for every election instilled in me the importance of voting at an early age. My parents didn’t always agree on a candidate, but they never argued about politics.
I also learned that it is also important to educate myself on the candidates’ positions. I can remember voting in my early adulthood and coming across a slate of candidates in local elections for which I hadn’t done the research. I knew absolutely nothing about their beliefs. I decided then and there to skip the vote on those candidates. I didn’t think it fair of me to vote without having done the research. From that point forward, I have never gone unprepared into the voting booth.
When I was much younger, political discourse was exciting and one was often able to see things from his or her opponent’s point of view. Politicians were able to compromise and pass legislation for the greater good. I have nostalgia for the time when people could have differing opinions without getting angry or hurling personal insults.
Our right to vote is an integral part of our democracy and should never be neglected or taken for granted. We owe it to ourselves as well as to everyone else in our great country to cast an informed vote in every election. I truly believe we live in the greatest country in the world. We have to overcome the ultra-extreme partisan divide that is currently tearing our country apart and work together to fix the problems we have. Our future and our children’s future depend on it.
I vote to protect my voice, to protect my daughter's future, and to build a world where I want to be. I haven't missed a primary election in years. And I do my best to vote in every general election. I know it is my duty to choose the best leader possible. This year it isn't an easy choice. However, I will vote and recognize that it is my privilege to vote.
After the birth of my daughter I was diagnosed with severe mental illness. I was lucky to be identified as needing mental health care early by my healthcare providers. I was never criminalized for my mental health condition, something many people face in today's environment with more prisons than treatment programs.
I believe we need more treatment and less prison time for people with mental illness. The time for shame and stigma of biologically based illnesses are over. Stigma and shame need to change and I participate in the process hoping that someday my efforts will make a difference in someone else's life.
As a society it is the duty of citizens to pick people up and put them back on the ladder of life when people start to fall off. As an able citizen in recovery from severe mental illness I appreciate my civic duty to vote. I am part of the process. I vote to build a community where we want to live.
Get It While the Gettin’s Good If you’ve ever followed the hashtag #FirstWorldProblems on twitter, which pokes tongue-in-cheek fun at how good people in the first world have it, you’ll understand what I’m about to say. In a country where we face such inconveniences as waiting a full five minutes for someone else to make our hamburger, or having to drive all the way across town to buy the cell phone we want, it can be easy to see voting as an inconvenience: the long lines, the standing, the research it takes to know who’s who...
And yet, as the old saying goes, when you take things for granted, the things you are granted get taken. The rights we have were not given freely; they were hard-won. Perhaps because many of us did not fight those battles personally, because time or distance separate us from those who did, we overlook the privilege and rights we have, thinking them irrevocable.
Well, think again. Democracy disappears when the people who are its foundation cease to invest. A government of the people need, by definition, peopleto maintain it and support it. According to Al Jazeera America, only 42 percent of Americans voted in the 2014 midterm elections, the lowest level of voter turnout since 1978. 58% of Americans thought voting was unimportant, took their rights for granted, and let someone else make their decisions for them.
Power is a delicate thing. It is easily seized and hard to hold onto. Every time a person decides not to vote, he or she relinquishes power to someone else. Is that person trustworthy? Does that person have interests in maintaining democracy, or in seizing power for him or herself--because every time you don’t vote, that becomes a real possibility.
Democracy requires participation and investment. It’s not an inconvenience or a chore; it’s an honor and a privilege. Just ask anyone living under a totalitarian regime what would they give for the burden of having to choose amongst a pool of candidates who best represents their values?
Ask those who fight for our nation every day, or think back to the Civil War, when President Lincoln so famously honored those who had fought with the express purpose:
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Do not let this cause be in vain. Do your simple part of getting out of your chair, and dragging yourself to the polls. We cease to be a democracy when we cease to participate in the decisions that shape our lives.
Raise Your Voice Like many Americans, when I was young I was taught that the constitutional right and responsibility to vote were almost sacred. Now we are living through an election cycle where the stakes are too high not to vote. Yet people are more turned off voting than ever. More people are giving up this civic duty and handing over their futures to others.
Voters do not appreciate the privilege mostly because their vote often does not seem to matter. As a liberal-leaning voter in a red state, I entirely understand. I’m frustrated feeling that no elected official truly represents me.
Frustration with the system has led to people disenfranchising themselves by choosing not to vote. So many truly disenfranchised groups fought long and hard in this country for the right to vote; sometimes, I wonder if they fought in vain.
Of course the system is flawed. No system created by human beings is perfect. But it’s what we have and no one has yet come up with a better idea. Think about the voters in countries who’ve recently gained this right we take for granted, their pride and happiness in voting. Even amid rumors and allegations of corruption in the voting procedure.
They finally had their voice. Why don’t we, as Americans, raise our voices for the values we stand for?
The right to vote is also one of our best methods of expression. I want to be able to express my dissatisfaction with the politicians others elect, and I would be hypocritical if I didn’t participate in the process.
So, everyone, you may be cynical that your vote won’t count, but I urge you all to vote anyway, at every opportunity. Whichever candidate you choose. You’re choosing your — our nation’s — future.
Unless one resides under an outcropping in the middle of Death Valley, it is painfully apparent that we the people are in the throes of yet another election year. Fraught as it may be with candidate posturing on all levels from Joan of Arc championing to consecutive bouts of urinary Olympics, we do ourselves a serious disservice if we choose to lose the remote and simply ignore the state of things until oh, Christmas time. Sure, there are those who fully engage, foaming at the bit for every moment of debate, of early polling numbers and whatever spin Fox deems adequate to garner twenty minutes of air time but for a lot of us politics on any level is comparable to getting one’s gums scraped sans lidocaine. For a few of us that pain is even more intense and a bit lower.
Let’s face it. The incumbent, love him or hate him is on his way out and it’s anyone’s White House. Since the tax payin’, pitch fork weildin’ villagers, love to light a lantern and ferret out a monster, most of the candidates at this point are getting our attention by stacking the digested hay as high as it can go with an effigy of the opponent tacked to the pile. A bonfire gets our attention.
Unfortunately, the only way to stop the political weanie roasts is for we the people to put down the pitchfork, click the off button on the remote and get out there and cast our vote. And it is to our detriment when we warm our hands over those bonfires, voting against the monster du jour rather than educating ourselves on the real issues and positions of each candidate. Especially in an election year where there seems to be no clear choice, at least to this American the only logical choice I can make is to educate myself on the issues rather than the personalities and cast my vote. Besides, if I do this and I don’t like the results say by Christmas, I can pick up my pitchfork again and start slinging that digested hay with the vindication that I didn’t vote for that idiot.
As a chick with quick fingers and little filter, I could use this opportunity to join in and make a pitch for my personal favorite, with appropriate deferral of any negative positioning against those I deem less suited for POTUS for the next four to eight years. I’d be within my rights to taut my conservative Christian lifestyle as indicative of my candidate support. But I am also a bit of a maverick and I truly believe my quick fingers and my lack of filter would be better utilized if I simply chose the side of “Get out there and vote.” Stop letting the raucous and verbose minority define us as a nation. You and I are better than that. Show up, or shut up. That’s my mantra. Spoken in love and seasoned with salt. Peace.
This fall, I welcome you to be a new leaf over turning. Countless proud people are rolling in their graves, hoping for an emboldened you. Our hearts are awakening to the possibility of a good living king not as a single person ruling everything but more over a philosophy manifesting in a democracy, a social democracy I dare say that still fosters competition and creativity but provides a baseline from which our hearts and minds can leap. Everyone deserves food, a home, and health. Only then will we fly into great wonder rather than continue to drop in this corporate oligarchy we've allowed to persist. To borrow words I read fleetingly while scrolling, this feels like this is the last season of America and the writers are just going nuts! I realize that this may be our rock bottom. In fact I pray it is. We all know how much lower we could go. So I say choose to wake up before too much blaring of the alarm clock, take note before we break! Put out faith and energy in infrastructure for future generations, invest in focusing on New local industry and energy revolutions.
Leaving out CEO leaders to lord over empty corrals. We can organize and build a quality future while they’re busy playing games. VOTE!
Choosing not to vote is an abrogation of our Citizen Duty to vote. But, more than that, refusing to vote is giving up… it’s abandoning hope. Everyone comes out loud and vociferous for the presidential elections, decrying the system. Then, when the election is over, all those agitators fade into the woodwork.
If we want our votes to count, we have to vote every time and we have remain engaged even when there’s not a coming election. If you want to do something about the two party system – which everyone acknowledges is not working as it should – then you cannot sit back and wait for elections. Congress and White House administrations are operating a public arena, for all the world to follow, all the time, not just in an election year. Bring your election year activism to every day and be part of the change. Moreover, the history of both parties demonstrates how change can be created from within the parties. Whatever your party, the evolution of political parties in America is historical and undeniable fact. You CAN create change in the system, both by activism and by voting. Refusing to vote is nothing less than apathy.
Sitting on the outside, condemning the system that is THE ONLY SYSTEM WE HAVE is not creating change; only coming out for elections tells the politicians that they just have to wait out the election year to go back to business as usual. Refusing to vote tells politicians they don’t have to worry about your concerns because you won’t vote – if you don’t vote, you won’t exist to them. If we want change, we have to be part of the change all year, every year. We have to engage and keep engaging all the time. With citizenship comes responsibility. It is our Citizen Duty to VOTE every time there is a vote.
Your vote is always an act of HOPE. As a citizen, choosing not to vote is the ultimate act of apathy, of abandoning hope. “Apathy is acquiescence is compliance is approval.” ~MomzillaNC
There is always a solution: it requires our activism and our active hope – and, always, our VOTE. “Hands and hearts and minds and voices committed to working for tolerance, peace and social justice everywhere, always.” ~MomzillaNC
