HILLARY: In a word, thanks

As we sail into new governmental waters, I would like to take a minute to look back and express my gratitude for all the service Hillary Clinton has rendered to our country.

When my children were young, Hillary was an up and coming children’s attorney/advocate. She worked with and was trained by the best-known experts in the field (like Marion Edelman). Her book “It Takes a Village” brimmed with heart fire and love for her work. Then she moved on and became a fair housing and civil rights advocate who helped push through many protections for homebuyers and neighborhoods, pushing back red-lining and other forms of discrimination.

After Bill’s presidency ended, the couple founded the Clinton Foundation, receiving lots of money from wealthy donors and corporations. They used it to build AIDS hospitals in Africa (starting with Mozambique) and pressured their pharma donors to make AIDS medicines available there and to lower their prices everywhere.

They didn’t build mansions or hotels or resorts with their name in lights. They just served.

Are they perfect? Of course not. Did all their projects succeed? No. They built a couple of schools that never got off the ground because there weren’t enough teachers. In this world, nothing is perfect. But Hillary deserves a lot of credit for really good works. What will she do next? What she’s always done. Serve is what she does.

Thank you for letting me say “Thank you, Hillary,” before moving on.

MARIAN BRECKENRIDGE

Coeur d’Alene