Family Moab

Family Moab
In Arches National Park

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

We Still Have Oprah

“I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon. And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.”
- Oprah Winfrey, speech at reception of Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, Golden Globes, 2018

A fair percentage of our country is searching for leadership, and we found it in Oprah's acceptance speech on Sunday night. While acknowledging the recent trauma and upheaval of America's social fabric, the painful truths that women have suppressed for centuries, and the gut-wrenching realization that we all have to change, Oprah nonetheless inspired everyone watching and galvanized us to become the leaders for that evolution. 

I watched the Golden Globes with Aden, who asked me why Oprah was so important when the introduction and montage began. Along with Reese Witherspoon, I tried to explain Oprah's cultural importance over the decades - her power, honesty, American triumph story of a rise from poverty and abuse to a beneficial power.  We both started to sniffle as the speech - by some accounts written by a politcial speechwriter - got into full swing, and by the end of the oration, Aden was sobbing.

Aden's reaction increased my tears, and I could only imagine what it meant to a 16-year-old girl to hear words of hope, to transform the shock and pain of the past year by some magical alchemy into a yellow-brick-road to a better future. I have no opinions about Oprah's potential run for president in 2020, but I do know that her style of leadership fills a vacuum, and the more people - men and women - who rise to fill that vacuum with empowering words and enlightening vision the more we will all benefit.

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