Cracking the glass ceiling

This week, the proverbial glass ceiling has been cracked thanks to the historical nomination, by the Democratic Party, of Hillary Clinton as the first woman candidate in the Presidential race to the White House.

Claudette Buttigieg is a PN MP – cbuttigieg08@gmail.com, twitter: @ButClaudette

This is a very particular time for women in politics. It follows the British Conservative Party’s choice of Theresa May as leader and, consequently, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a quarter of a century after Margaret Thatcher. (Let’s not forget, too, that another woman – Andrea Leadsom, the only other woman in the contest – came second in the leadership race.)

Of course, Clinton’s race is far from over. Eight years ago she lost to Barack Obama, who himself broke the ceiling of colour and race. This time Hillary Clinton went a step further and made history.

She now has to face the man people love to hate while others simply adore. Donald Trump.

The Democratic convention showed some divisions within the party, which were largely overcome thanks to the loyalty of Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s main rival, who pushed for unity and the greater good by asking the convention to suspend all procedures and unanimously nominate Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee.

As with all conventions in America, the event was packed with important speeches but the speech which everybody is talking about is the one given by the First Lady, Michelle Obama.

After the controversy of how Melania Trump’s speech was plagiarised from the one Michelle Obama gave eight years ago, the First Lady showed confidence, grace and eloquence in the delivery of a beautifully written speech.

Michelle Obama started off on a very personal note: The need for her and her husband to protect their two daughters from the difficulties of public life. She spoke of the hateful language about the President’s origins and faith. A language, she said, which “does not reflect the true spirit of being American.”

She gracefully gibed at Trump’s bullying tactics without once mentioning his name. I loved the part when she said that “the issues a president faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters,” referring of course to the infamous Trump tweets.

Without talking down to people, she illustrated with simple examples how politicians influence the lives and future of children not just through policies but, even more immediately and memorably, by setting an example and being role models.

Always referring to the American Presidency, Michelle Obama spoke about the noble side of politics and urged people not to be cynical or frustrated with politics because “we cannot (merely) hope for the best.” To get what we hope for we have to work for it.”

This great speech “cloaked in grace and beautiful strength” (as someone tweeted) is being considered by many to be among the finest convention speeches in American history. Some are now looking at Michelle Obama as a possible future candidate herself. But for the time being all eyes are on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The barbarians set a trap

The recent barbaric terrorist attacks in France and Germany have escalated the sense of fear and insecurity in Europe. Undoubtedly, the killing of an 85year-old priest in Normandy seems particularly gratuitous.

Fr Jacques Hamel could have retired nine years ago but he chose to keep on working. He was known to say good morning to everyone in the neighbourhood. He was killed while celebrating Mass. According to some reports, he was forced down on his knees and had his throat slit.

Of course, the attackers wanted their barbarism to be sickening and disgusting. They want to destroy our way of life, and one way of doing this is to get us to abandon our tolerance and openness.

We must not walk into their trap. Toughness with terrorists includes mental toughness, not playing your enemy’s game. If we want to be loyal to Fr Hamel’s memory, we should remember his openness, which included cooperative work with the Muslims in his community. Like everyone else, they have paid tributes to him too, dissociating themselves from the killers.