"RISE, HILLARY, RISE"

Yesterday morning, I got a $235 traffic ticket when I was just half a mile from work. I was in downtown Dallas, on my everyday route to my office. I was completely bewildered when the policeman pulled me over, since I thought I was barely moving.

It turned out that I was going 26 mph in a 20 mph zone.

"I take this way every day, and I never speed!" I protested to the very polite and attractive AA cop.

"it's always been a school," he said. I had the completely irrelevant (and upon almost instant reflection, I was ashamed of it) thought that, what if you knew that I regularly travel this part of town as a volunteer leader of Hunger Busters? My immediately following thought I spoke aloud, "Yes, I know, it's the Dallas Can! Academy, isn't it? I'm always careful!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but this time you weren't," he replied. He walked away, while I frantically called The Sage and asked where I could find the proof of insurance, since it wasn't in the glove compartment.

The very polite officer returned my driver's license, the ticket (!), and gave me directions how to get through the complex of one-way streets in downtown Dallas that would get me back onto my drive to the office.

Today, taking the same route through downtown Dallas as I have for the past four years, I was especially careful as I passed the place where the policeman pulled me over. I was astonished to find that the inner-city school I'd passed that so often had changed its name once again, and was now called the "Maya Angelou High School." I was thrilled, since Ms. Angelou is one of my favorite poets. Later in the day when there was a pause in my video editing while technicians tried to solve a glitch in the DNS, I quickly checked my email and the headlines of my favorite blogs. In one of those delightful but unexpected coincidences, I found this tribute from Maya Angelou to Hillary Clinton, which I want to share with you (h/t BlueSpot:

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

This is not the first time you have seen Hillary Clinton seemingly at her wits end, but she has always risen, always risen, much to the dismay of her adversaries and the delight of her friends.

Hillary Clinton will not give up on you and all she asks of you is that you do not give up on her.

There is a world of difference between being a woman and being an old female. If you’re born a girl, grow up, and live long enough, you can become an old female. But, to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies.

Hillary Clinton is a woman. She has been there and done that and has still risen. She is in this race for the long haul. She intends to make a difference in our country.

She is the prayer of every woman and man who long for fair play, healthy families, good schools, and a balanced economy.

She declares she wants to see more smiles in the families, more courtesies between men and women, more honesty in the marketplace. Hillary Clinton intends to help our country to what it can become.

She means to rise.

She means to help our country rise. Don’t give up on her, ever.

In fact, if you help her to rise, you will rise with her and help her make this country a wonderful, wonderful place where every man and every woman can live freely without sanctimonious piety, without crippling fear.

Rise Hillary.

Rise.

More Maya.