Destiny's Child

I'm in "defending independent women" mode, celebrating those women who step beyond themselves to find their higher calling. I've believed in this all my life, that humans should have the ability to pursue their utmost potential, male or female, mother, father, or childless.
Of course, this has been motivated by what I've seen surrounding McCain's Palin pick, and by an e-mail that I received today from a friend about a woman here in Oklahoma who has decided that Palin's first calling is as a mother and that's what she should adhere to, not this silly vice presidency thing.
Have you ever heard it said that women are harder on other women than anyone else?
Madeline Albright said, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There's a reason that Albright said this.
I'm ashamed of a certain percentage of my gender.
Shame on any women for looking down on Palin. Shame. I celebrated Hillary's primary race. Even though she lost the race, she didn't lose for us women. She ran as far as she could; if life is a relay, she was able to pass the baton to Palin who can, quite frankly, finish the race.
And I will invoke God in my message, because I have a firm belief that God endows us with gifts that he wants us to use on this Earth. As I see women saying that Palin's place is at home with her children, I say no, it is not, and shame on you all. You wish you had the strength and the fortitude to do what Palin has done.
Palin has been endowed with the gift of might, of speech, and of circumstance. Those things don't happen on accident.
Stand and celebrate, for it is our moment in history.
Palin has liberated herself, she has let her strengths be her guiding light, and if the criticizing women out there were smart, then they would celebrate this special icon for our gender and stop trying to beat her down because they are themselves so insecure and unable.
With this, I share a very special poem that I keep in every one of my journals because I so firmly believe its message.
It is the poem, "Our deepest fear" by Marianne Williamson, and it is important because we are put on this earth to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And that is what Palin is doing; that also is what Obama is doing. But no one would ever, ever criticize Obama for running for president while having children at home.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”