Like Katy Burns (Sunday Monitor Forum, Aug. 9), my mother was born before the passage of the 19th Amendment. My mother would have been 3 years old in 1920, and I suspect my grandmother would have been overjoyed at the prospect of voting.
By the time the 100-year milestone is reached tomorrow, on Aug. 18, 2020, the long-awaited announcement of Joe Biden’s running mate will have sunk in. Waiting for him to make his decision was excruciating but very much worth the wait. His deliberative process reveals two things about the man. First, the fact that he picked a woman reveals that he can be trusted to remain true to his word. Second, the fact that he recognized the importance of picking a woman of color reveals that he is very much in touch with the current climate regarding the state of race relations in America.
Kamala Harris will be only the third woman and the first woman of color to have been chosen as a vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket. That is an abysmal and daunting reality.
I remember when Geraldine Ferraro was selected by Walter Mondale to be his running mate in 1984. I even remember exactly where I was when the news broke. Unfortunately it was not at the most enlightened venue, and I was constrained from jumping with joy.
I was meeting a friend at a bar in the largely Republican bastion of the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio. A news bulletin interrupted the regularly scheduled sports game and I was one of a few people rapt with attention. I was still waiting for my friend and felt an immediate urge to share my jubilation with someone so I found the payphone and called my mother, who I knew would share my excitement at the news.
We talked about the milestone but also recognized the enormous burden Geraldine was shouldering on behalf of all women.
Geraldine acquitted herself beautifully, but the Democrats faced the incumbent Republican, Ronald Reagan, and victory was going to be elusive no matter who ran.
It would take another 24 years before another woman was selected as a vice presidential candidate. John McCain chose Sarah Palin in 2008 and that choice proved to be his downfall. Before her credentials were disclosed, I was happy that another woman finally achieved the distinction of being considered presidential material. Then she opened her mouth and I knew this was going to be a setback to the advances of women in politics. The McCain/Palin ticket lost against Obama/Biden, paving the way for the first African American to be elected president, only 143 years after slavery was abolished.
Usually, the choice of the vice presidential nominee is no big deal. It rarely makes a difference. But these are no usual times. A virus is ravaging the world and America holds the distinction of bearing the greatest burden in case numbers and deaths because the current administration dropped the ball early and often. As a result, millions of people are unemployed, small and large businesses are failing or faltering, schools are struggling, and the vast majority of the victims are Black and brown revealing a continuing epidemic of systemic racism in this country.
Add to the mix the fact that Joe Biden, if elected, will be the oldest president in the nation’s history at the age of 78. Harris, who is only 55, will be one older-than-normal heartbeat away from the oval office. Fortunately she has decades of experience in leadership positions and is eminently qualified to step into Biden’s shoes should the worst-case scenario happen.
In less than three months voters will be going to the polls to make their choice. In the interim, Harris is going to be subject to scrutiny from all sectors of society and will carry the weight of the world for all women on her shoulders. Some will suggest she is not qualified solely on the basis that she is a woman. Others will be so bold as to suggest a woman of color has no business running for vice president. These are stereotypes and prejudices that have prevailed for centuries and it is high time they be dispelled once and for all. If anyone can dispel them, I believe it to be Kamala Harris.
The first thing I thought of when I received the news alert on my phone that Biden had made his choice was I wished I could call my mother. She only lived long enough to witness Ferraro’s attempt to break the barrier. We would have talked about what an exciting addition to Biden’s ticket Harris was and how she balanced and complemented the ticket.
Ultimately we would have shared the optimism that finally, after 100 years of being able to vote, women will make sure that three times is a charm.
(Susannah Colt lives in Whitefield.)