Hashtag #NotaWomen'sIssue: What I Learned from Hillary Clinton Today

Here is a great example of how Hillary Clinton innovates, teaches, and generates change.  A little while ago, her Twitter account tweeted this quote from her speech at Day in Blue today.

Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton  · 

Hillary on equal pay: "This is not a women’s issue. This is a family issue. This is an American economic issue."

 

For seven years I have posted remarks Hillary has made here in the U.S. and all over the world on issues that I have automatically tagged "women's issues."  You can search that category here and come up with pages and pages of posts with that tag.

But the truth about these issues is what Hillary said today, and I shall have to create a new, and more powerful tag:  NOT a women's issue.  

For many years, George Lakoff, linguist and political commentator,  has been busting his suspenders over the way Democrats have allowed Republicans to control framing.  Here is a sample.  There are many.

George Lakoff: Progressives Need to Use Language That Reflects Moral Values

Tuesday, 30 October 2012 10:00 By Mark Karlin, Truthout | Interview

OK, so he doesn't wear suspenders.  He just looks like the kind of guy who would.  The point is that for decades Democrats have allowed Republicans to control the language of policy-making and legislation.

In Hillary Clinton Democrats may have the candidate who can change all of that,  Hillary is inventive where language is concerned, so much so that when her 2008 campaign site urged us to follow her on Twitter I thought she invented brand-name.  It sounded like something she would make up, and I asked her that on Twitter after I joined.  Who had ever heard of a "townterview" before Hillary became Secretary of State?

She may not have laid out a platform yet, but Hillary has, since she began her public speaking tour in 2013, been drawing the blueprint, and it involves changing points of view by changing the way we talk about things.

Today she made something clear.  "Pink" issues are red, white, and blue issues.  If we adopt her phrase as a tag and a hashtag we can go a long way toward establishing some of the viewpoints Hillary is going to be advocating.  In other words, we can help her reframe the issues by adopting her vocabulary.

I have never failed to learn something by listening to Hillary.  Her 1000 Days initiative taught us how providing good (and surprisingly inexpensive) maternal and child nutrition over the 1000 days from conception to age two can change the future, not just for families, but also for nations.  Her Clean Cookstoves  Initiative taught us how cooking over unsafe fuels affects the health and lives of billions of people all over the world.

When Hillary Clinton speaks, there is always something to learn.  I have learned today that I can help  her reframe how we talk about (frame) and then see things by changing how I categorize them.

P.S.  Something else I just learned.  I think the hashtag works better if you leave the apostrophe out.  #NotAWomensIssue   *sigh*

What has Hillary Clinton taught you?

Hillary Clinton Assumes Leadership Chair at Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Last Thursday, after the closing session of CGI 2013, after the good-byes, thank yous, and departures, Hillary Clinton moved on to meet old friends, some of whom, indeed, had participated in this year's annual Clinton Global Initiative. She went to a meeting, the third annual one, of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves,  now operating in more than 120 countries in four regions around the world.

In September 2010, as Secretary of State, Hillary announced the formation of this organization dedicated to providing clean-cooking stoves in place of dangerous open-pit cooking fires and  high-pollutant devices and fuels.  At CGI 2010, her keynote speech explained the need for this alliance and its mission.

At this year's meeting, Hillary announced that she is assuming the chair of the alliance's leadership council.

Secretary Clinton to Chair Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Leadership Council

September 26, 2013 by: Sean Bartlett

Washington, DC (September 26, 2013) – The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves celebrated its third anniversary today with major new announcements, partnerships, and commitments in support of a global market for clean cooking solutions.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who launched the Alliance in 2010, announced that she will chair the Alliance’s Leadership Council, an influential group of world leaders that provides the Alliance with strategic advice and visibility.

“We need to keep the Alliance going and growing,” said Secretary Clinton. “Find more partners; expand the market; put more stoves in the hands of consumers; save more lives. That’s what the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is all about, and that’s why I will continue to be an enthusiastic supporter and partner.”

Read more >>>>

 

Related article >>>>

Clinton Announces Doubling of Cookstove Distribution, Buoyed by Carbon Markets

Carbon offsets financed half of the 8 million clean or efficient stoves distributed in 2012, as high offset prices and corporate demand to enable stove projects drove $167.3 million into the sector. This from a new report by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace tracking progress among partners of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
 

September 30, 2013 | NEW YORK | “I would be invited into someone’s home, and I would go in and I couldn’t breathe,” former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells of her experience with household air pollution from traditional cooking techniques, at an event held last week marking the third anniversary of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

“My eyes were starting to water,” she continues, “I was having trouble because the stove was billowing out fumes which were something I had not had to live with for more than thirty minutes but that the women and children in the home lived with every day.”

In light of her experiences and recognition that an estimated four million people die each year from the use of traditional cookstoves and open fire pits that pollute indoor air, Clinton – alongside donor governments, businesses and NGOs – launched the Alliance in 2010. Its mission? To spur the adoption of more efficient or clean cooking solutions in 100 million households by 2020.

Read more >>>>

It is clear that Hillary intends to remain very busy and involved in the issues that matter most to her. Among her current projects are Too Small to Fail promoting the health and well-being of children 0-5, Beijing +20 to research the degree of progress on women's rights since her 1996 Beijing speech having a target date of 2016, and her clean cookstoves initiative where she has taken the driver's seat. 

Our "Energizer Bunny" just keeps going  (as she quoted from Harriet Tubman in her 2008 Convention speech), and we will keep following and cheering her on.  Go Hillary!  You rock!

Secretary Clinton Recruits Seven More African Allies for Clean Cookstoves

Secretary Clinton Helps Secure Seven Additional African Nations to Join the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

June 16, 2011

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On the heels of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit to Africa, seven African nations have joined the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The governments of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda and Tanzania, together with the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, committed to join the public-private partnership to help save lives around the world.

These new Alliance partners have set goals to collectively reach nearly 20 million African homes with clean stoves and fuels by 2020, and ultimately help achieve the Alliance’s 100 by 20 goal, which calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.

The new African members join the nearly 100 partners which include national governments, UN agencies, private companies and non-governmental organizations already mobilized to overcome market barriers and achieve global-scale production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves in the developing world.

Encouraging the development and use of clean cooking solutions in cultures, communities, and countries throughout the developing world is consistent with the core principles of U.S. foreign policy and development efforts, which focus on improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable populations. The U.S. government has committed more than $50 million to the Alliance over five years. With the help of more than six federal agencies, the U.S. government is mobilizing financial resources, providing top-level U.S. experts, and leveraging research and development tools to help the Alliance achieve its 100 by 20 target.

On September 21, 2010, Secretary Clinton announced the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership led by the UN Foundation, to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. In May 2011, academy-award winning actress Julia Roberts became Global Ambassador of the Alliance.

To learn more about the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, visit www.cleancookstoves.org orhttp://www.state.gov/s/partnerships/cleancookstoves/.