The
day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the
fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there
be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result
in the highest development of the race —Susan B. Anthony
In the wee hours
of this morning, over half of this country’s voters woke to heart break and
bewilderment. Just under half, to
vindication and conceit. What had seemed
marked for a historic occasion, instead brought to millions of American’s a
dawn of real fear and uncertainty—about their rights to equal treatment, their
ability to keep their families together, and the nature of what it means to be
an American. They had to figure out how
to explain that the words their children heard spoken by the new President
Elect during his campaign were not something to emulate, but would in fact get
them expelled from school. That while
you can rise to the highest office in the land degrading women and speaking of
them and treating them as merely sexual objects, that is not how women deserve
to be treated and it not something women should ever tolerate. That the proverbial melting pot that is the
great American experiment is, for the moment, only for those with backgrounds
as diverse as English, Irish, German, and Swedish.
So, as I say
good-bye to an America that eight years ago elected a biracial African-American
man on a message of hope, diversity, inclusion, and compassion, I face this
nation with renewed vigor to demonstrate to my daughters how a good man behaves. How a good man treats his wife, his children,
his mother, and his female coworkers, friends and neighbors. How he treats those less fortunate and how he
responds in both the face of adversity and loss, and in prosperity and triumph. I face this new nation, so divided by hate
and anger, ignorance and malice, with a call to service. To help teach those like our new President
Elect, that science is not magic or fantasy, but the collected human
understanding of the natural world and the threats our magnificent earth faces. To show that fear of what we don’t understand
is not cause to turn away, but an opportunity to grow as individuals and expand
the boundaries that hold us back from reaching our full potential as a
nation. To demonstrate that compassion is
not weakness and that there is a way to stand up for what you believe in, even
to defend yourself against the vilest of enemies, with grace and honor.
