Dear Secretary Clinton,
First let me say THANK YOU.
Next let me tell you I’M SORRY.
Finally, I would like to make you a PROMISE.
THANK YOU for stepping into the arena and absorbing the blows you have taken for all women. I thought we had made progress. I thought this was it. We were finally going to shatter that ceiling. As many women before you have learned, the world wasn’t ready for us.
I know you were ambivalent about running again at first. How could you not be? You wanted to do what was right for all Americans. And I’m not sure we have thanked you for it. So, thank you.
And now I need to tell you I’M SORRY. I’m as surprised as anyone. My plan for this morning was to wake up with my kids and celebrate the first woman being elected to the highest office in the land. We would have fun conversations about what the world would call your husband. It would be a day in history we would always remember. I guess on that score, I was right.
Like many of your supporters, I woke up today feeling like Oscar Schindler at the end of Schindler’s List. How could I have saved this race? Could I have done more? Could I have worked harder?
And lastly, here is my PROMISE:
I want to spend the day under the covers trying to figure out how this happened. But I can’t. I have kids to raise and bills to pay. I have to figure out, just like the women before me, how to go on.
So I asked myself, “What is Hillary doing this morning?” I have to believe the answer is: Putting on your big-girl pantsuit and making a new plan for women in the future. The women suffragists, the civil rights activists, anyone in history fighting for what was right didn’t lay down when they got knocked back, and We. Can’t. Either.
Like you, I am a life-long learner. I do not make the same mistakes twice. I will do more in the future for my self, my daughter and all of our children.
I will:
· Have a good cry and acknowledge just how much this sucks
· Accept reality that I cannot change
· Have a voice, make it heard and continue to challenge the status quo
· Set an example for my daughter and son and continue to try to change the world for the better
· Model acceptance, kindness and love and hope that it grows in everyone
· Be strong
· Keep going
· Continue to fight for what I believe in
So, Secretary Clinton, please know you are not alone. Your fight was not in vain. You are appreciated, respected, and we will pick up the mantle and keep fighting.