” The struggle for an integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust and respect is one with desperately important political and social consequences. And the word consequences of course catapults us into the future. One of the most tragic things that happened yesterday, a beautiful day, was that I was talking to a woman who said that she wouldn’t want to be me for anything in the world. She wouldn’t want to live today and look ahead to what it is she sees because she’s afraid. Fear is always with us but we just don’t have time for it. Not now.”

– Hilary Rodham, First-Ever Student Speaker, Wellesley College Graduation, 1969

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“We’ve come to Philadelphia – the birthplace of our nation – because what happened in this city 240 years ago still has something to teach us today. We all know the story. But we usually focus on how it turned out – and not enough on how close that story came to never being written at all.  When representatives from 13 unruly colonies met just down the road from here, some wanted to stick with the King. Some wanted to stick it to the King, and go their own way. The revolution hung in the balance. Then somehow they began listening to each other … compromising … finding common purpose.  And by the time they left Philadelphia, they had begun to see themselves as one nation.

America is once again at a moment of reckoning. Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. And just as with our founders, there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together. Our country’s motto is e pluribus unum: out of many, we are one. Will we stay true to that motto?”

– Hillary Rodham Clinton, First-Ever Female Nominee for President, Democratic National Convention, 2016