Ferraro Will Forever Be A Fighter
NEWS, PEOPLE Friday, April 1st, 2011
By Alex Peng
90 years ago, American women were finally granted the right to vote by the ratification of the 19th amendment after generations of agitation and frustration.
Then it took another 64 years for a New York Democrat: Geraldine Anne Ferraro, to become the first female Vice Presidential candidate representing a major American political party.
Ethel Chen, a Chinese American trailblazer herself in politics, said these historical journeys not only mark this nation’s gradual advancement in inclusion but many personal enduring struggles against adversaries as well.
Ethel Chen, now a retired Liberian, has run for a New York City Council seat twice, both in 1997 and 2001.
On a sunny Monday afternoon in Flushing recently, she shared with me that Geraldine Ferraro used to be “my neighbor in Forest Hills and my admirable icon in politics”. Showing me many pictures that were taken in 1986, Ethel Chen vividly recalled when she first met Geraldine Ferraro and her husband John Zaccaro in a banquet hosted by Asian American for Equality to celebrate Lunar New Year. She praised Geraldine Ferraro for not only encouraging but also inspiring generations of female politicians to abolish barriers by putting their names on a slate. She also gave credit to Geraldine Ferraro for her support of Hillary Clinton’s first-ever presidential campaign in 2008.
Ethel Chen hailed and appreciated Geraldine Ferraro as an extraordinary fighter “for women and of women.”
Short URL: http://blogs.aaja.org/ourchinatown/?p=1021
Posted by Michelle Jiang
on Apr 1 2011. Filed under NEWS, PEOPLE.
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