Thread by @DrSherryPagoto

I shared the news of @ewarren's exit with my 12 year old daughter tonight. Her response wasn’t of sadness or anger.

It was much worse than that.

A thread. 1/x

“She wasn't gonna win either way,” she texted back flatly, as if I was a fool to think otherwise.

DEJECTED. The worst response of all.

Let me take a step back though because she wasn’t always this way. Let’s go back to 2016.

2/x

At 8 years old, my girl made Hillary signs with her crayons and Scotch-taped them to the telephone polls along the street. She loved to wear this homemade Hill shirt which earned her fist bumps and thumbs ups from strangers.

3/x

On election day, we blasted Beyonce’s Girls Run the World on the way to the polls. The volunteers smiled as she stomped into the gym, head held high, proudly donning her Hillary pins.

We made popcorn and a pillow fort in the living room as we watched the returns…

4/x

Being 8 years old and all, she knocked out by 8pm. Right before the winds shifted.

When I told her the news in the morning, she accused me of lying.

I said, “No baby, I’m serious. She lost.”

5/x

She wrote Hillary a letter because she worried Hill might be upset.

She made a TO DO list of good deeds that included things like “pick up trash” because in her little mind she felt this need to right a wrong somehow. It was precious.

6/x

Hillary wrote back and she beamed. OMG, SHE WROTE BACK!

Ain’t that somethin'? She wrote back!

(Ok it was one of those TY cards everybody gets for writing but shhhh she thinks Hill wrote it herself).

7/x

Then still holding strong, she marched to Boston Common at the March for Our Lives. 8/x

Four years later I tried to engage her in Warren’s campaign. It's been harder to capture her interest. Her hesitance to latch onto my excitement has felt like I was trying to talk her into a wild goose chase.

She wasn’t having it.

9/x

Early on somehow she got the message that Warren had "no chance of winning."

She heard loud and clear that in dangerous times the women should step aside to be SAFE.

Let a man take the lead.

10/x

SAFE.

These are hard times.

Don’t study. Don’t work hard. Don’t push your agenda, no matter how much you know it to be right.

MOVE ASIDE so that we can

ALL

BE

SAFE.

11/x

So what can I do now to revive her spirit? At 12, she’s too hardened for the innocent hope generated by pinky promises.

Do I wait 4 years to hatch a new plan to reinvigorate her 16 year old self? What if we’re in hard times again?

What if we need to be SAFE again?

12/x

Nah. I will open her world beyond this town,

beyond this so-called blue state,

beyond this country,

beyond these invisible, suffocating walls.

13/x

I will tell her about…

Jacinda in New Zealand,
Katrín in Iceland,
Sahle-Work in Ethiopia,
Simonetta in Switzerland,
Erna in Norway.

14/x

Maybe we'll go to one or more of these places.

I’ll say,

"You see, this place we live, it’s not the whole world. It doesn’t have to be your whole world. You don’t have to wait for it. If it’s not ready for you, then go make your impact where you can."

15/x

"And whatever you do, baby....

If it comes down to the choice between a chance to change the world and playing it safe…

FUCK SAFE."

16/x

UPDATE! I read this thread to my girl when she got home from school. She went on a rant against sexism and Trump and all I could do is smile and think to myself SHE'S BAAAAAAAACK! Oh and she has decided to endorse Bernie. I am, however, making no endorsements at this time. ;)