MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS FOR HILLARY

I had a big thrill today. My oldest daughter (of three, plus two sons) is getting married in exactly one month from yesterday. She's a beautiful (not just my opinion!), brilliant, successful young businesswoman, she sails competitively, has produced indy movies and continues to pursue that interest, raises horses for endurance racing, and is generally an amazing young woman. Now in addition to all her extracurricular interests she's completely engaged in planning her wedding to a young man we love and welcome as a son. Along with all that praise, I have to add, she has never been very engaged politically.

Till now. And today, in the midst of managing myriad wedding details, she called me on the phone at work. She said, "Mom, I'm in the car. Can you Google a number for me? I want to call the Hillary Clinton campaign and get a huge yard sign." She went on to explain that after I commented last night that I'd never donated so much to a political candidate as I have to Hillary (with the complete agreement of The Sage), she began to wonder what she could do to contribute.

Now, she lives within shouting distance of the famous Southfork Ranch (of the TV show Dallas), a rural-suburban area outside Dallas that is made up of two-to-five acre ranchettes. Most of her neighbors, like her, have 70's-era, moderately sized (2500-3500 sf) ranch houses with swimming pools and barns or stables for one, two or three horses. They all have HUGE frontage on Parker Road, a heavily traveled byway, and as my daughter told me, there was a plethora of McCain and a few Obama posters in their front yards.

So Daisy decided she wanted a HILLARY sign.

I'm not sure what caused the sudden spurt of Hillary love. I do talk to my daughter (as with all my children) a good deal about my political thoughts. But I'm going to guess that at least part of it was her own life experience. She's been a star in business from the time she was fifteen, when the CEO of Bank of America Texas Operations spotted her potential when she waited on him at a Plano, TX yogurt shop. From there she went on to graduate with a triple major from one of the most prestigious (and expensive -- totally on scholarship) Texas universities, to a lucrative career in banking.

But during those years she's experienced egregious sexual discrimination and harassment, which to a great extent she's passed off as business reality. She's a realist in her business life and an idealist in her personal life. But I think that she's believed that once she was "established" as an executive that things would improve.

It can't have escaped her notice that Hillary is, for the umpteenth time, undergoing the same kind of treatment, which is not temporary or ephemeral but a lifelong reality. She recognizes that, like her, Hillary has never played the victim card but as any worthy activist has had the courage to call out prejudice when she sees it.

And she knows that Hillary has spent her entire adult life defending and fighting for the rights of women to be treated as people, not as a separate and unequal species, and for the well-being and protection of children. Hillary hasn't let any obstacles divert her from her mission of public service. And my daughter has never let anything stand in the way of her achieving her goals.

My daughter recognizes a kindred spirit when she meets one. So there's now a great big Hillary for President sign on Parker Road.

Boy, do I feel good right now.