Of course Barack and Michelle Obama brought down house on the second night at the DNC -- "Do something!" And we must.
But it was Illinois U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth who capped the night for me. In 2004, serving as an Army helicopter pilot, she lost both legs and mobility in one arm when shot down by a rocket propelled grenade over Iraq.
So, at length she came home and ran first for Congress and then for the Senate.
She's the kind of person Donald Trump would hide or throw away. He is afraid of disability and irritated when close to physically "damaged" people. (You could make the case that he feels at home among the morally damaged, but that's another story.)
Duckworth didn't think her life was over when she lost her legs -- nor did she think she should not be able to have children. She spent 10 years trying to get pregnant and used IVF to have two daughters.
Republicans threaten not only access to abortion for women who need to end a pregnancy, but also access to IVF for women who are desperately trying to have children. A bunch of old men legislators and other weirdos want to decide for everyone.
Duckworth serves now as a warrior for women.
"Duckworth is the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, the first person born in Thailand elected to Congress, the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, the first female double amputee in the Senate, and the first senator to give birth while in office. She is the second Asian American woman to serve in the Senate, after Mazie Hirono."--Wikipedia, [https://time.com/4551817/50-women-political-history-2/]
ReplyDeleteHer mother is Thai, and her father, an American, has ancestors who fought in the War of Independence.