Isn’t Easy

The 2016 election result have left me reeling between despair and determination.  Having spent many years immersed in writing biographies and social history of women, I’m well aware of the fierce resistance to women’s participation in the public arena and misogyny in our collective history.  Still I wasn’t braced for the election of the candidate who openly denigrates large segments of Americans, espousing  racist, sexist, xenophobic ideas, mocking people with disabilities, threatening immigrants, embracing purveyors of white nationalism . . .  This morning I found comfort in the words Hillary Rodman Clinton spoke last night at the Children’s Defense Fund Event in Washington, D.C.: “I know this isn’t easy. I know that over the past week a lot of people have asked themselves whether America is the country we thought it was. But please listen to me when I say this: America is worth it. . . . It’s up to each and every one of us to keep working to make America better and stronger and fairer.”