Below is my 250 word reply to the NYT, February 12, 2016 “Tell US: Is It Important to Elect a Woman as President?” I am thankful for Bernie Sanders’ running for the Democratic presidential nomination because he is pushing Hillary Clinton to more closely define her beliefs, thereby, standing closer the compassionate, democratic ideals and lived into principles I believe the United States has to stand fully for once again. I hope his challenges continue to encourage her to more openly speak out for the values women can bring to the table, living in to the promise she proclaimed in Beijing 20 years ago at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women: “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that Human Rights are Women Rights and Women’s Rights are Human Rights once and for all.” She repeated and elaborated on this statement when she addressed the UN on the 2014 International Women’s Day saying, “When women succeed the world succeeds. When women and girls thrive, entire societies thrive.” This is why I believe

It is essential that a woman be elected president in order to shatter the glass ceiling that is often obscured by the widespread belief that women, by our nature, are second class citizens. The presence of the glass ceiling is denied by those who have power over women, their children and underclass men, by those who have far more than enough and remain blind to the suffering of those who have less than enough. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton intentionally chose to visit women and children in need, every where she visited throughout the world. Her actions lett us know that she cherishes and respects women’s rights as human rights. This willingness to stand with those who have less than others and who are judged as less than others is critical to revitalizing our sense of ourselves as a compassionate and democratic nation.
When we speak about climate change, we are implicitly talking about Mother Earth, the Creation which is given lip service but is treated ruthlessly in order to aggrandize the top layers of society without consideration of the cost for present as well as future generations. In her very being, a woman president would image, embody and raise up the feminine. She would not be flawless; however, her presence, her voice, her leadership would challenge perceptions of all women at a time when we know that women and their children are raped, human trafficked, abused, murder as well as underpaid, demeaned, devalued and trivialized in in more subtle ways.