Hillary is terug

Dit zijn haar 24 wijze lessen

Misschien heb je het gemist, maar ik niet. Hillary heeft voor het eerst sinds de verkiezingen weer haar hoofd om het hoekje gestoken. En hoe. Ze hield de commencement speech (je weet wel, de speech voor de afgestudeerden van een Amerikaanse universiteit) aan het Wellesley College, de universiteit waar ze zelf 48 jaar geleden studeerde. Omdat je misschien geen tijd hebt de hele speech te beluisteren (hij duurt een dik halfuur), heb ik de parels er voor je uitgevist.

• You may have heard that things didn’t exactly go the way I planned. But, you know what? I’m doing ok.
  I’ve gotten time to spend with my family and my amazing grandchildren (I actually wanted to dedicate this whole commencement-speech to them but I was talked out of it), long walks in the woods. Organizing my wardrobe… and, I won’t lie. Chardonnay helped too.
  O Hillary, ik heb misschien wel eens wat over je kleding te zeuren gehad, maar ik hou van je.
• Here’s what helped the most. Remembering who I was, where I came from and what I believe.
• Social media is sewing division in a time where we desperately need unity.
• Some people even deny what we see with our own eyes. Like the size of crowds. Dit was de eerste steek naar Donald Trump die met droge ogen beweerde dat er bij zijn inauguratie meer mensen waren dan bij Obama. Tuuurlijk, Donald.
• If our leaders lie about the problems we face, we cannot solve them. En steekje nummer twee voor Donald.
• As the history-majors among you here today know all too well, when people in power invent their own facts, and attack those who question them, it marks the beginning of the end of a free society.
• That is what authoritarian regimes have done. They attempt to control reality, not just our laws, rights and budgets, but our thoughts and beliefs.
• Maybe you didn’t create the circumstances, but you have the power to change them.
• Vaclav Havel wrote a book The Power of the Powerless in which he said; when one person cries out: “The emperor is naked” everything suddenly appears in another light.
• If you feel powerless; DON’T. Don’t let anyone tell you your voice doesn’t matter.
• In the years to come there will always be trolls on the lure. Online and in person. Eager to tell you that you don’t have anything worthwile to say or anything meaningful to contribute. They may even call you a ‘nasty woman’. Je begrijpt dat Hillary hierna even moest stoppen om te genieten van het applaus en het gelach.
• Some may take a slightly more sophisticated approach and say that you’re too educated and out of touch with real people. In other words; sit down and shut up.
• Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts. Meneer Trump, leest u even mee?
• It’s ok to change your mind from time to time. Take it from me; the former president of the young republicans.
• Please learn the value of an open mind and an open society. We better do this with open minds and outstretched hands than with closed minds and clinched fist.
• Dont’ be afraid of your dreams and ambitions, not even of your anger.
• The day after the election, I did wanna speak to women and girls, particularly young girls, because you are valuable. And powerful. And you deserve every opportunity in the world. Not only for your future, but our future depends on you believing that. Kippenvel.
• One of the things that gave me the most hope and joy after the elcetion was meeting so many young girls who told me that my defeat had not defeated them.
• Politics to me is the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.
• I never could have imagined where I would have been 48 years later. Never that I would have run for the presidency of the United States. Seeing progress for women in all walks of life over the course of my lifetime and yes put millions of cracks in that highest and hardest glass ceiling.
• Doors that once seemed closed and sealed for women are now open. They are ready for you to walk through.
• Whatever your dreams are today, dream even bigger.
• It’s often during the darkest times where you can do the most good.
• Be bold. Try. Fail. But Never give up on those dreams.

Amen. Hooray for Hillary. En mag ik ze allemaal op een tegel?