I never really followed politics, but, for some reason, I’m a little bit more “into” this year’s election (not totally but kind of). I think I am just enthralled by the fact that I am witnessing the first serious female candidate for president.
Let me back up a bit. My great-grandparents were born a few years before women gained the right to vote. My grandparents were the generation that saw schools desegregated. My parents, although only in their mid-40s, were around in that era that still saw African Americans being mistreated, followed by the mess that was Vietnam.
A woman running for president should have happened a long time ago in the decades that saw so much improvement for civil rights. It is two-thousand-freaking-eight, my friends, and I am almost embarrassed that someday I am going to have to look at my children and say, “Well, yes, I was a senior in college when a woman finally had a serious chance at winning.”
It should have been my parents saying to me, “In 1960-something, when I was just starting kindergarten, a woman ran for president. She didn’t win, but she ran.”
Our generation is the grand ol’ technology generation. We’ve seen everything from the crappy Nintendo with the cartridges you had to blow in, to the MacBook Air (which is unnecessary, but still cool). Everyone is equal and now it’s time to make neat stuff. Neat stuff like the Wii. We’re supposed to be working on flying cars, not on getting a woman elected president. It should have happened long, long ago.
Why did it take nearly 90 years after the passing of the 19th Amendment for a woman to be taken seriously? Hillary may “cry,” but, for a president, I’d rather have a chick that gets a little teary-eyed than a man with no heart. It never killed anyone to show a little emotion.
Ashley Davidson is a senior majoring in journalism and studio art and can be reached at a.davidson2@umiami.edu.