My old friend Jimmy sent me today's Writers Almanac because he said it was "an especially good issue." So I was curious and clicked the W.A. link I have on the right-hand side of XE--in "Blogs I Love." I don't read all of these blogs every day...I don't even eat breakfast every day. But I always read everything Jim sends because it's always to-the-point--the point of everything I care a lot about: liberal politics, good writing, humor. [Looking at watch--"I see my time is up...." Jim will get that!]
So without further ado, here is the link to young Ms. Rodham's 1969 speech. I especially liked the poem, written by Nancy Scheibner, with which our future and past First Lady concluded:
My entrance into the world of so-called "social problems"
Must be with quiet laughter, or not at all.
The hollow men of anger and bitterness
The bountiful ladies of righteous degradation
All must be left to a bygone age.
And the purpose of history is to provide a receptacle
For all those myths and oddments
Which oddly we have acquired
And from which we would become unburdened
To create a newer world
To transform the future into the present.
We have no need of false revolutions
In a world where categories tend to tyrannize our minds
And hang our wills up on narrow pegs.
It is well at every given moment to seek the limits in our lives.
And once those limits are understood
To understand that limitations no longer exist.
Earth could be fair. And you and I must be free
Not to save the world in a glorious crusade
Not to kill ourselves with a nameless gnawing pain
But to practice with all the skill of our being
The art of making possible.
