Hillary to Hub crowd: Teach kids kindness
Hillary Clinton took a break last night from her book tour about her loss in the presidential election to promote the value of “kindness” and mentorship to children.
Before an audience of about 500 at the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston’s annual gala at the Museum of Fine Arts, Clinton said the reason she is so devoted to doing what she can on behalf of children, particularly those who are vulnerable, is because of her mother.
Clinton has spent much of the past few months on the road around the nation touting her book, “What Happened,” blaming her 2016 presidential loss on Russian interference, and denouncing President Trump. She sounded a different note at last night’s event.
“I think it’s important, especially now, that we understand there are lots of children, lots of young people in our country, who need a helping hand, who need support,” she said. “My mother didn’t have that from her family. She was basically neglected and was treated with at best indifference and at worst hostility.”
At the age of 14, her mother was working as a housekeeper and babysitter in another family’s home, Clinton said. There was no Big Sisters organization, first in Chicago, where she was born, and then when she was put on a train in charge of her 5-year-old sister and sent to California to another family who did not want them, she said.
“But at every point along the way,” Clinton said, “someone showed her kindness,” from the woman whose house she worked in and who told her if she finished her chores early, she could go to school, to the teacher who realized she was hungry and shared her food with her.
“I talk about this because kindness is at the core of the mission of Big Sisters,” she said. “We also have to think of the obligation we all should accept to be there for people who need help.”