Book Review: something lost, something gained

 something lost, something gained; reflections on life, love and liberty

I've read a couple of Hilary Clinton's books. Her comments on Putin & Chump were interesting in this book. She writes with hope, although there is much about which to despair. AC posted a piece on his blog about The Juxtaposition of Good and Evil, i.e., respair vs despair (TikTok commentary). 

Clinton wrote, 

'Yet despite all our problems, I remain "an optimist who worries a lot," to borrow a phrase from my friend Madeleine Albright.'

It is a reflective book. Some interesting things happened while she was fighting to get vulnerable women out of Afghanistan ('White Scarves' chapter). She helped Zarifa Ghafari escape the Taliban, for example. Clinton and her daughter created an Emmy Award-winning Documentary, In Her Hands about this woman.

There are some reflections on First Ladies, and all the hoopla about what they should or shouldn't wear, do, or say. The was some 'flak' when Dr. Jill Biden insisted on being called Dr. Biden, not Mrs. Biden. Heaven forbid women be recognized for their hard work! (To Clinton, she was Jill!) As Secretary of State she made a huge difference to women around the world.

Clinton talks about Eleanor Roosevelt, who was an accomplished diplomat and led negotiations in Paris for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Roosevelt, Clinton writes, helped us understand that 

'human rights only meant something if they extended from the halls of power to the homes of people.'

I appreciated the chapters that covered her co-teaching at university in 2023. I taught one course, once a week during one semester at Ottawa U. It is not easy. Clinton's work as Secretary of State was quite intriguing, and brought a lot of education and political experience to her students. 

Clinton warns us of Christian nationalists who aim to take rights from women. There are the tragic results of reversing Roe v. Wade. She points out that their religion doesn't apply to people of other sensibilities. 

The pieces on Putin are telling. Clinton writes that, 

"One could see him as motivated primarily by what he seeks to gain: power, territory, riches, respect. But I believe Putin is motivated more by loss." I.e. the USSR and that lost empire. He is terrified of losing power, and his life. He cracks down on dissent not from a position of strength but fear. 

Clinton points out that "protesting is only effective if it's part of a broader strategy to drive real change."

What else I learned:

• In 1994, Newt Gingrich proposed taking children away from moms on welfare and placing them in state-run orphanages. Babies in orphanages, and moms in group homes. 
• A federal district court struck down California's maternity leave law as sex discrimination against women. (Canada has maternity and paternity leave.)
• In 1995 there were 12 female heads of state. This year there are just 29.
• Only 13 countries out of 193 have parity in national cabinets.
• One in 3 women of reproductive age in the USA now lived under an abortion ban. 
• After Texas banned abortions after 6 weeks, the states infant death rate increased and more babies died of birth defects.
• Black women are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Many of these deaths are preventable. (Clinton cites 92% in a 2023 report from Arkansas.)

16 Sept 2024 – In this web exclusive, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks with CBS News’ Erin Moriarty about her efforts in 2001, at the time of U.S. forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, to help with the evacuation of vulnerable Afghan women dubbed “white scarves” – educators, government officials, broadcasters and businesswomen – who had been targeted by the Taliban.

The administration is a laughing stock. Everyone I know is shocked with their attacks on everyone and everything they don't like. Everyone who is different from these rich, white men.