This past Sunday, Hillary Clinton left a 9/11 commemoration event at Ground Zero early, but speculation about her health rose substantially when videos captured her nearly collapsing upon her exit. The 19 second clip clearly shows her leaning heavily on an aid, and her wobbly attempt at entering her van couldn't be disguised; the democratic presidential candidate was obviously ill, and it would pose an incredible problem for her campaign's image. Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia the Friday before the commemoration event, but her campaign failed to reveal this to the public. Instead, it became public in a documented fainting spell, and now opposers question her campaign's transparency and relationship with its supporters. However, I find this ludicrous, because people seem to be looking for any reason to discredit this woman's pursuit of the Oval Office.
My support for Hillary has been reluctant, at best. It was hard to see Bernie Sanders surrender his bid in the Democratic National Convention, but between her and Donald Trump, I would pick her every time. When you hear Trump say things like he would build an inexpensive wall on our Southern border and date his daughter, it's hard to take him seriously. And up until recently, that's how I decided I would vote. "As long as Trump doesn't win," became my political mantra and guideline, but a recent post on Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York and its commentary changed my perspective drastically.
(Brandon Stanton)
On September 8th, Stanton posted snippets of his interview with Hillary. Although they were brief, they conveyed a lot about her character as a real person and not her public persona. In the first post, she recalled taking a law admissions exam at Harvard. Other students there, overwhelmingly male, were hostile and aggressive towards her, because they feared she would take their spot in the class. Some even went so far as to say she would be the reason they would be drafted to fight in Vietnam, but she forced herself to retain her composure and focus on the exam. And how could she not? It was the beginning of her career. This college anecdote aside, it was the following quote that really made me rethink my opinion about her.
"I know that I can be perceived as aloof or cold or unemotional. But I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions. And that’s a hard path to walk. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time you don’t want to seem ‘walled off.’ And sometimes I think I come across more in the ‘walled off’ arena. And if I create that perception, then I take responsibility. I don’t view myself as cold or unemotional. And neither do my friends. And neither does my family."
(Brandon Stanton)
When I first read this, I didn't even see her picture. And when I scrolled down, I was shocked blind to see it was her, because I never imagined her as a woman of struggle before. To me, Hillary embodies political success; she's a household name with multiple accomplishments to her name, and now she's running for the most powerful political seat in the world. However, to imagine her as a young twenty-something year old in a classroom... It makes her incredibly human, and I would be a hypocrite by all means if I spoke ill of her reputation or power. After all, I want to accomplish big things. Will I be seen as cold and aloof too?
Without a doubt.
In the end, it isn't about her or my personalities, accomplishments, or talents because society, unfortunately, fails to attribute admirable qualities to all women in power. It's an affliction women face everywhere, but it will change because it has to. Women everywhere are striving for successes independently of their husbands and families now more than ever, and it's projected that women will account for nearly 51% of the workforce between 2008 and 2018.
That will be an incredible accomplishment for a nation that continues to face sexism and gender inequality on the regular, and what better way to show the world progress than electing the first female president of the United States?
