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| Senator Elizabeth Warren |
I have to say that over the last two years I have found a formidable role-model. I can see who I am through the words and actions of Elizabeth Warren. Many would say, "No, you should see yourself in women like Maxine Waters!" I do see myself in Maxine Waters, too. I find that she speaks for people who look like her. She speaks for the Black woman and woman in general. What I haven't been able to see in her, thus far, is the fight for people who don't look like her. That's when you know that your caring comes from a place outside the whelm of differences and reside in a place of obscurity. Warren has a love for all who suffer and cry out in need of a leader, and she gives them exactly what they need. This blog will be a videography of her finest speeches, in my opinion. Senate hearings and stories and why they have made a profound impact on my life as an activist, advocate and leader. I want you to see Elizabeth Warren through my eyes.
Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1948, she was the first person to graduate college in her family. Her father worked as a maintenance man at the local high school. Her mother worked at Sears in the catalog department, because her father had a heart-attack. She spent most of her childhood at the lower part of the middle class, but managed to graduate from Rutger Law School, while raising a child. She married her college sweetheart in 1970, and began doing what women do as a wife. Except she had drive, and wanted so much more. The first video I will share, is an answer from God, when she was a young mother striving to keep her job as a teacher.
She told this story, to help explain why childcare is vital to young working women. She was at a conference for Healthcare Action in 2018. She helped the women listening understand that she can understand their struggles, because she struggled, too, and won. Some people will give up, but with honest fervor and zeal, Elizabeth Warren told them the story of Abraham and the lamb in the bush. It lets me know that when God has a call on your life, there will always be an Aunt Bea, or in my case an Aunt Beverly. Someone who will answer your prayers at the very moment you need it. Every woman who knows God, has had one of these moments. It's all falling apart and then...Here comes God working his magic. Let me know Elizabeth Warren is "blessed and highly favored".
In 2016, Wells Fargo begins a tumultuous ending. The bank had been creating fake accounts to build their worth as a bank. The way it worked is that entry-level employees in the banks would create fake accounts without customers knowing. These accounts weren't used for anything, but to build the banks reputation of having more accounts than other banks and being ranked higher among those in the same industry. But, that is against the law and they were fined 185 million dollars by the Securities and Exchange Committee. There was 5,300 lower-level employees fired, the CEO John Stumpf resigned, the creator of the scam Carrie Tolstedt also stepped down. Not before Stumpf went before Senator Elizabeth Warren, and the Senate Finance Committee. Here just one of the exchanges between Stumpf and Warren.
This is actually the first time I'd seen her. This exchange appeared on my Facebook page and I asked myself, "Who is this woman, telling this White man he needs to be fired?" Because he is responsible for the sun rising that morning, and he was so self-assured that he found it relevant to answer her. Well, she saw no relevance in his response, at all, and finished him off in one "fell swoop". It was incredible, and I think her oral diction is impeccable. I strive to be so crystal clear, when I tell people who are wrong that they are just that, and explain in clear terms where they fall short. Because of that, however, I don't get many people willing to face me in a conversation, meeting or an impromptu conversation. I have facts, I have opinions, I have sarcasm and bible quotes, I have it all and am ready for you. I wished I was Elizabeth Warren, and bad men just had to sit and listen to me tell them off. That would be an ideal place for me.
In a speech that held precedent on the Senate floor, she blasted Jeff Sessions. He was Trump's nominee for Attorney General. Warren opposed his nomination, and was ready to read a letter from Coretta Scott-King wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee. At the time, it was 1968, and Sessions' was being considered for a Federal Judge Appointment. He had done and said some pretty racist things during the Civil Rights Movement. As Trump's "watch dog", she held the floor overnight to block Trump's progress. When she began to read the letter, Republican leaders cut her off and shut her down. She then went to her office, and took to Facebook "Live". She read the letter in its entirety to those of us who were watching. "She persisted", even if she didn't get to finish, she knew they were afraid of what she had to say. She had won...
I am a woman. I love a man, and one day I hope to be someone's mother. That is not everything that I am, or will be. I have hope, dreams and aspirations a part from those things. Although her first marriage failed, and she married again, in 1980. Even that is a symbol of telling us that we always don't get it right, but there is a possibility for a second chance. A woman like Elizabeth Warren shows me that it can be done. She tells her story and everyone else's story with the grace that proves that fighting isn't ever in vain. People are watching, and could learn from your experiences, lessons and understanding. I like the way she doesn't "mind her own business", and the way she minds the business of America. She tells it like it is, and with her Feminist ideas and conjecture, she is changing the face of womanhood in the world. I want to be that way. Her story is our story, her life is our life and we are all better, because she lived the life she did.
Elizabeth Warren's website and social media pages:
