… and I am not quite sure how to handle the foment that ensued. I am posting this to right the record.
A few days ago, this photo was posted on Facebook with a comment that indicated that it was taken on July 4 of this year and marveling at how young and wonderful Hillary Clinton looks. That was not true. She does look great, but this is not a recent photo.
I contributed that the photo is actually from August 2008 when Hillary delivered her speech endorsing Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The individual who posted it thanked me – for my thoughts – but refused neglected to edit the original, misleading text.
Before long, her friends were sharing the photo on Facebook along with the erroneous date. Some veteran, diehard Hillary folks were picking up the error and questioning the date, but the original text stubbornly remains to this moment. When I asked for it to be corrected, a firestorm erupted. Bad me! For interfering with … what? A pipe dream? A myth that is nowhere near as visceral and fortifying as the truth? “What difference does a date make?” They raged. “It’s still Hillary, isn’t it?”
To me, and to many, it makes an enormous difference. An historical difference.
My longtime Hillary friends know how iconic that photo is and what a seminal moment that was for all of us, especially Hillary. It was dense with emotion and difficult. She was asking us to do what so many of us were not ready to do. She was exemplifying party unity when many of us – a large portion of the party – were already consolidated behind the PUMA* acronym. (*Party Unity My A$$ or People United Means Action: most of us opted for the former.)
Earlier, women had marched in the streets of Denver in recognition of Women’s Suffrage and the 88th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Many wore white. Hillary, when she went to the convention floor for a walk-through, also had sported white that day. She knew what was happening outside.
When she came onstage after Chelsea’s introduction, she was wearing that tangerine pantsuit. No one who was there or watching will ever forget that. It was a moment in history, Women’s History, the nation’s history. Hillary did exactly what was expected of her and much more. She was full-hearted and full-throated in her endorsement. Among us, there were tears.
There was also anger, not at Hillary, mostly, although some turned furiously against her that night, and some never returned to her corner. There was anger at the system that did not allow a transparent and full roll call vote on the floor. Anger that Nancy Pelosi called the vote early. Anger that Hillary was the one who marched out to stop it. Anger that our votes were not registered by our Hillary delegates before our eyes and ears. We felt disenfranchised.
My governor, leader of our delegation, shredded my vote on the convention floor and gave it to Barack Obama on the first ballot. We later learned it was not the first ballot which was even more disturbing. The first ballot was not even taken on the convention floor before cameras, per tradition. In a huge rupture with protocol, it was taken early in the morning in the hotel suites, before Hillary had released her delegates. One state leader told delegates, “We want you to vote for Obama.”
Pelosi called the floor vote before 2, the time C-Span had it scheduled. By the time my DVR started recording, at 2, they were already at California. Had the vote been on time, I should have captured some yada yada yada and then the A states. I would have seen the Arkansas protest. I would have seen Bill Gwatney’s widow escorted off the convention floor. Her husband, the Arkansas Democratic party head had been murdered only two weeks before at party headquarters,
So the dating of this picture has much more to do with history than it does with identifying who is in it and how great she looks or how similar she looks today. Yes, she looked epic that night. Ready to take on the world.
Re-dating this photo washes away a moment in history that I had on my DirecTV hard drive until the day it crashed. It eliminates the history Hillary made that night doing the very difficult work of trying to pull the party back together, a task Bernie Sanders neglected to do at the 2016 convention. (And why should he have? To this day, he is not a Democrat! He is an interloper, a disrupter.) That night, Hillary went out there for the fight. It was heroic.
Now, in requesting that the original, faulty text reassigning the date on that Facebook post be altered to reflect fact, I am the bad guy. I am disrespectful to the Eastern European source who has “loved Hillary her whole life.” A glance at her timeline shows her (literally) naked support of Obama.
I am the one telling people not to love Hillary. (WHAT???!!!) All I asked for was a correction!
Where on earth does this nonsense come from? Since when is it a personal affront to request that a misleading header be changed? Since when does stating the facts become hurtful, and “drama?” Since when has reportage without attribution become dogma to Hillary Clinton supporters anywhere? It boggles the mind.
As you can tell, I am pretty pi$$ed off. All of our Facebook communities, this blog, other blogs, and websites have long been dedicated to recording and archiving Hillary’s work. We are cooperative, democratic, and try to be as accurate as possible in our endeavors.
To be slammed for insisting on accuracy hurts. To be insulted hurts. To be swarmed by devotées of a Facebook “personality” can be exhausting. Perhaps I should have given up the fight. But I believe people should know the truth.
People should know where and when that photo came from, and if they were not “with us” at the time, they should know the truth it represents.
Here are some Hillary Clinton Communities (Groups and Pages) on Facebook that do not revolve around a Facebook personality. They center on Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Supporters of “The People’s President”, Hillary Rodham Clinton
There are many more groups, pages, and websites (see my Blog Roll on the right), and many thousands of Hillary Clinton’s supporters participate in them. They do not center on any fangirls or fanboys with fragile egos. They center on Hillary and her ongoing work. Our goal is fact. Our objective is truth.
Screw the mythology. Combat and correct it. In years to come, the truth will need to survive, and the truth here should not be that Hillary Clinton appeared at a fictional event on July 4, 2017 looking smashing. It should be that she picked herself up from a painful, narrow defeat and soldiered on to support her party – looking smashing! She always does!
Hi. I completely agree with every word you said! Thank you!
Note: I check this link for the most accurate information and appreciate your hard work!
#Onward
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My DVD of Hillary’s speech that night is one of my proudest possessions. It was Hillary at her finest and should not be trivialized by being re-dated and removed from the correct context.
I’m afraid it’s the Trump era at work in our culture. When a television network which styles itself The History Channel presents ahistorical garbage claiming to have definitive proof of what happened to Amelia Earhart 80 years ago when it lacks any credible evidence, much less proof, we are deep in the world of alternative “facts”. Everything must defer to entertainment now. Including facts and evidence.
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Thank you! Alternative “facts.” I have a lot of reservations about the person who posted that content. What amazed me was the number of “Hillary supporters who either swallowed it whole or didn’t think the true history was sufficient reason to somehow go against their friend who posted it. It occurs to me that these folks may be new to Hillary. Perhaps supported Obama in 08. But still! Why would you fight the actual history and say it doesn’t matter? It’s all so bizarre. Believing a foreign source – or defending one – over American history. I would n be surprised by Trumpsters doing it, But Hillary people?
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I really do not think we need more fake news. It is very important to be accurate. As you are. You provide me and I am sure others overseas always with information that I can trust. Thank you.
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Thank you, Cornelia. I always appreciate your honest, balanced, and thoughtful interest in Hillary and her work.
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I’d like to see Hillary Clinton turn back the hand of time by getting into cardio so she can run again in 2020. It’s probably not going to happen because those close to Hillary would probably never dare tell her now is the time in her life to do cardio. There is a growing movement among seniors and cardio exercising. Ruth Bader Ginsberg at age 84 just put out an exercise book! There are other exciting stories I have seen on television about seniors who are doing amazing things cardio wise. I hate to see Hillary Clinton go the way of the talking head, someone with wisdom and persistence whose body cannot keep up, that would be a waste and I believe it is close to happening if she does not start doing cardio.
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not sure what the cardio talk is about. Is HRC, GodForbid, not feeling well? She looks amazing! I have noticed that She has lost a little weight but she’s great, especially when She talks (speeches), She has more energy and power in Her than me, who exercises 5 times a week. I’m a little worried, please tell me She is OK?
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I don’t know, has she worn that particular pantsuit since then? It was a pretty striking statement that night and as a Clinton supporter, I can’t imagine mistaking the time. So what does this person gain from this?
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She has worn it a few times. She wore it once during the 2016 cycle, but I don’t remember exactly when. Unfortunately I don’t tag posts by pantsuit color. I once needed a video from a friend who kept a collection of Hillary’s Senate speeches. I told him the subject, and he asked me what color pantsuit she was wearing. That is how he had them catalogued! 😀
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Her name is Alexi Frest. She pretends to be American. She is not. Do not trust the surveys she posts. They are looking for your into.
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