HUNTINGTON, W.V. -- Hillary Clinton, traveling press corps in tow, started her Mother's Day trip through West Virginia with a stop at church, where the pastor's sermon urged the faithful to think of themselves as more than a "comma." (
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/11/1008616.aspx)
"Maybe you've been a comma at some time in your life," Pastor Paul Russell said. "People don't really listen to you. People don't really value you. Listen -- there is one who listens to you. There is one who values you. What a great thing to know that you and I are not commas to God."
The message seemed appropriate as the New York senator seeks to remain part of the storyline, as Obama begins to look ahead to the general-election match up with McCain.
Clinton arrived at the First United Methodist Church late, but was greeted with a gift of cookies as she and daughter Chelsea sat in the second pew. They listened as Russell read the Pentecost story from Acts Chapter 2, and also noted the secular holiday.
“Sometimes being a mom is a thankless job,” Russell said. “That's why we honor them in a special way today. Mother's Day is an opportunity to say a much-deserved, ‘Thank you.’”
Clinton did not speak at the service, but stood with Russell after it ended, greeting the worshipers.
GRAFTON, WV — Hillary Clinton celebrated Mothers’ Day with her daughter Chelsea in the holiday’s ancestral home — using its founder as a message of perseverence for a campaign that’s hanging on by a thread. (
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/05/11/on-mothers-day-hillary-woos-west-virginia-women/)
“I think it’s interesting that this holiday we start today was the idea of a woman, right here in Grafton,” she said. “Anna Jarvis prevailed against the odds. If you were to come up with an idea right now for a national holiday, and you persevered for nine or ten years like she did, it would be a labor of love. And that’s what it sometimes does take to make the changes that benefit us.”
Part of the inspiration to persevere against her own long odds, she said, comes from messages from her supporters telling her to keep her head up and forge ahead. “Over the past few weeks I’ve gotten emails from around the country from people offering words of encouragement and advice,” she said. “One man from California wrote ‘keep fighting. No matter what the outcome may be, the fact that you stood throughout the constant ups and downs of the race, one thing is sure - you never wavered and you never gave up.’”
At that, the crowd cheered - and one man loudly yelled “don’t give up!”
Clinton
spoke to reporters afterward and told stories about women who have changed history by pressing for equal rights and breaking into male-dominated careers.
She highlighted her own mother's working-class upbringing and quoted from letters she said mothers have written her recently.
"Keep fighting," Clinton said, reading from one of those letters. "The fact is that you stood throughout the constant ups and downs of this race. You never wavered and you never gave up."
Clinton said her favorite letter ended, "It's not over until the lady in the pantsuit says it is."
"'Don’t give up. I’m supporting you looking at my girls and knowing that when the going gets tough, you keep forging ahead,'" Clinton said, as she continued to read the messages she'd received. "A Californian wrote, 'For the sake of our future and mothers everywhere, keep your head up, keep going in this race, keep fighting. I'm with you all the way.'' (
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/clinton-its-not.html)
Clinton thanked women who came before her and spoke about being a young trial lawyer. She later appealed to the audience, saying, "I am asking for your support so I can continue to fight for you."
She
said that being a mother and a woman have uniquely prepared her for taking on the presidency.
“I’ve come to believe that hard work, determination and resilience are encoded in our DNA,” she said. “We know we have the ‘worrying gene’, we know we have the ‘put your coat on because it’s cold outside gene,’ but we also have the ‘stand up and fight for what you believe in gene.’”
“Women have been standing up for what we believe in, defying convention and going forward for a long time,” she said.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/11/1008828.aspxShe also acknowledged that women, including herself, have “experienced a moment along the way when your own sense of limitless possibility collided with a harsher reality.”
“Women face a lot of barriers, some visible, some invisible,” she said. “And in 2008, it’s really important we recommit ourselves to making sure that our daughters and our sons have an equal chance to lead and serve in the future.”
Clinton closed by asking the supportive crowd to join the “tens of millions” of Americans who have already voted in this election.
“I am asking for your support, so that I can continue to fight for you, fight to finish the work that we have started,” she said, before quoting yet another message she received.
“Happy Mother’s Day,” the woman wrote to Clinton. “Hopefully I’ll be wishing you one next year as president. You have already succeeded at the world’s hardest job, being a mother. The second hardest job should be a breeze for you.”
Hillary Clinton wrote in an op-ed for The Charleston Gazette:
http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200805100334I was raised to believe in the promise of America. My grandfather was a factory worker, and my father served in the Navy and started a small business. My mother had a difficult childhood, but provided a loving home for our family and while she never got to attend college, she was determined that her children would. I have had every opportunity in life because of their hard work and sacrifice.
I carry with me not just their dreams, but the dreams of people like them all across our country: people who embrace hard work and opportunity, who never waver in the face of adversity, and who work day and night to make a better life for your children.
For the past seven years, I know so many of you have felt invisible to our president - holding your breath at the gas pump and the grocery checkout line; wondering what you'll do when health insurance disappears when a job does; seeing your loved ones who served our country in war ill-served when they return home.
I am running for president to stand for you and fight for your dreams and your future. I am running to give every child and every family the same opportunities and blessings that I had.
With two wars abroad and an economic crisis here at home, the stakes are higher than ever before. We need a president who knows how to make this economy work for middle-class families again and who is ready on day one to be commander in chief and keep our families safe. If you give me the chance, I will be that president.
Accomplishing all of this won't be easy. But if there is one thing you know about me, it's this: I don't back down from a challenge. I'll be there for you long after the speeches are over and the cameras are gone, and I will never stop listening to your voices and standing for your families.
We know the stakes in this election are high and the challenges great. But we also know the possibilities are endless with the right leadership. It is up to us to roll up our sleeves, start solving our toughest problems, and start delivering on the promise of this great nation that we love.
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