Elizabeth Warren's victory is personal to me

Daughter Julie (second from left) with Sen-elect Elizabeth Warren

On election night, I had a special reason to be  thrilled by Elizabeth Warren's election as Massachusetts senator, defeating incumbent Scott Brown: My youngest daughter Julie was the Communication Director for the Campaign.

I've admired Warren, a Harvard law professor, since I saw her on PBS explaining how banks fleeced Americans, often those who could least afford to lose money, with outrageous loan terms, deceptive credit card offers, manipulating the timing of checks to maximize NSF fees. Warren's sincerity, her advocacy for working families, her ability to explain complex financial transactions while Wall Street bankers wallowed in obfuscation, simply awed me. And the icing on the cake --Warren was a true feminist.

When I heard Warren was running for Senator, I raised my fist in support. Shortly afterward, Margie, a fine woman at my condominium passed away. In her obituary, her children asked that instead of flowers, friends donate to Warren's campaign. I did--gladly--and wrote a note to them that I would be thinking of their mother when Warren's victory was announced on election night.

Proud Parents

Several weeks later Julie called to tell me she had been offered a job in Warren's campaign--she was working for Oregon senator Jeff Merkley--and would have to move from Washington, DC to Boston for six months. And by the way, could she borrow one of our cars?  Soon, my husband, Jay, and I were on our way from from Portland, Oregon to Washington, motivated not only as parents to help our daughter in her new job, but as citizens to help our country get on the right track. We made the trip in four days, stopping on the way to have dinner with my daughter Rebecca, and her husband in Illinois.

From then until November 6, I didn't hear much from Julie, busy as she was on the campaign, although she did slow down long enough to send me lovely flowers and scrumptious candy for my birthday in October.

Julie will be driving to Portland soon. I can't wait to see her and tell her how proud of her. And while I want to hear more about the campaign, I know she'll be tired, and for campaign workers, talking about campaign is like describing a movie plot, hard to do and tedious. A lot happens and things change quickly.

Chelsea

Although this post is about my daughter Julie, I'm proud to write that I have three other fine daughters and six wonderful grandchildren including Chelsea, one of the next generation of feminists in my family. Chelsea is participating in the Who Needs Feminism? movement begun at Duke University and spreading across college campuses. The poster reads: "I need feminism because I want to have real conversations with men."

I consider myself a most fortunate woman.
---Jane




Elizabeth Warren

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