- On why she addresses even her enemies as “brother” and “sister”
- Tell her story based on each chapter being an interview and maybe some chapters being narratives from some of her friends, peers, former opponents, romantic partner ..etc
As she herself had said during interviews, many factors of the human condition combined during her childhood and young adulthood to present her with a responsibility to enter public life.
“I don’t start my day thinking, ‘I’m important. I’m really smart and thinking big thoughts and I’ll will be a figure in history.’ If I’m thinking that, even for a fraction of a second, that would be a serious mistake. I look at my situation as a responsibility. Twenty years ago , a lot of people asked me to run for mayor. I took it as a compliment but I made sure to thoroughly question those supporters about why they wanted me to run. It wasn’t my goal. I’m not a big believer in ambition. I think an urgent sense of responsibility is more important.
” It was the same with running for Congress, and now running for president. I’m convinced that not much changes for the better and that a lot of damage can be done if someone has many of the ‘right’ credentials in their education and connections and experience, but is doing it because of personal ambition and hunger for power, instead of a humble sense of responsibility.
“It might sound like a riddle to say high office should be humbling. But when I think about the extreme responsibility of high office, and the confidence my supporters have put into my campaigns and their continuing support, it is humbling. I can’t fake that. People I meet in communities around the country would know if I’m faking it. I’m not a good faker. I certainly have never like the saying, ‘fake it til you make it.’ It’s a state of mind where I genuinely know I’m doing my best—flawed as we all are —but it’s a matter of knowing that I’m focused on what I’ve promised to be focused on.”
Interviewer: You’ve given a lot of credit to your parents.
“I’m convinced that people who end up in positions such as the one I’m in are the culmination of a lot of things way beyond their control. I know that for sure about my life. I had extraordinary parents. My dad was a web developer and artist when he met my mom who was an immigrant from Dominican Republic working as a housekeeper at a hotel where she and my dad met.
“It was some sort of creative combination when they became a couple. I remember being maybe 4 or 5 or 6 at the oldest and feeling so fortunate to have the parents I had. I didn’t think I was better than other kids. I just thought something really amazing had happened to me, happened to us, because my parents seemed to love each other so much. I remember going places and being so proud with them in public. It wasn’t a feeling of superiority. It was something I wanted to share with everybody, something I wanted everyone to have. That tremendously positive foundation for my life….did I earn that? Absolutely not. In ways that I’ll never be capable of comprehending, a very positive, loving ‘process’, if you will, occurred wihin me emotionally and cognitively.”
INTERVIEWER : So that affects you when you meet people on the campaign?
“Of course. Talking with a steelworker, a nurse, a school teacher, a janitor, or an inmate or whoever we might not usually confer high status on, it shouldn’t be remarkable if I have normal conversations with them. Like I already said, I don’t consider myself to have earned my position in society. Thinking that way would be a major mistake.
” Instead, I think I have a responsibility due to the circumstances that have shaped my life. Even the informal accolade of being called an honest or a ‘real’ person, even by my opponents ( she laughs) is something that humbles and reminds me, sort of like a voice in my mind saying, ‘This should be telling you something. Use this situation to be of service.’ I intend to keep doing my best. We’ll see how it goes. When I first got involved in things, praise from people was sometimes more stressful than criticism. It was because when I first started with public office I was afraid of letting people down. You meet so many people that have been let down so many times by the political process. I can understand how someone would decide to get out of politics because of that.”
INTERVIEWER: I’ve been following your work for almost two decades. I’ve struck by how with almost every speech, a big part of the time you are appreciating the efforts of others. Your many ‘we’ statements have been noted by even your critics and opponents. Could you say more about giving others credit?
“Am I ‘giving’ others credit? It’s something they already have. I see myself as acknowledging–or actually, I try my best to acknowledge the reality: I wouldn’t be where I am working on what we’re doing without the very many things others have done. My mother and father were interesting in a beautiful way. They taught in words and in their actions to appreciate what others are doing, yet I cannot recall either of them making it a point that I should be grateful toward them. Isn’t that amazing? They never said, ‘Look what we are doing for you. I’m not bragging. I’m just acknowledging how fortunate I was to have parents such as them. Our staff have spoken with researchers on child development. When I talk about my parents, the researchers seem interested. Has your publication looked into how the strong positive regard from parents affects a child’s emotional and cognitive development?”
INTERVIEWER: I think there are some reports on that. That’s not my area. But it’s important to look into and see how it pertains to public policy, right?
“It certainly is. We’re not trying to run people’s lives or run their households or intrude in that way. We’ve found that many parents want as much advice and other resources as they can get. We’d say the current situation shows that government neglect of the general welfare and the common good is the problem, not too much government involvement. But I’d like to make a point about gratitude. Well, actually, you might not just use the term ‘gratitude’ because, well, let me ask you a question. Are you ok with that?
INTERVIEWER : (Laughs) That depends on what it is. But no, go ahead.
“Alright, so don’t you think appreciation or gratitude extends way past our immediate social connections, that it includes an acknowledgement of the unimaginable accumulation of efforts, of love and dedication and sacrifice of countless people who’ve helped make this world better, who’ve helped build this country, many of whom were badly abused, unrecognized and not given credit?”
INTERVIEWER: Yes, certainly.
“Don’t you think that also extends to the natural environment, all the natural systems on the planet and the countless individuals and species?”
INTERVIEWER: You’re making a good point.
“Is that a yes or a no? (Laughs) You’re fine. I’m joking.”
INTERVIEWER: But your point applies to public policy on the environment and the economy.
“Yeah, what so many of us have fought for so many years is based on acknowledging the reality: we must invest in social and ecological responsibility if we want to have the best chance of renewing prosperity and having high standards of living. It’s not about envy or anger or hate toward those who are more fortunate—–“
INTEVIEWER: _______( names of two or three incendiary leftist writers or pundits have said some—-I mean, you have to acknowledge—
“_________(name of the two or three) She states the names and then says, “But let me ask you. Are they laying out policy proposals? Are they involved in any of the big movements such as (names of movements). Not that I’m aware of.”
INTERVIEWER: You’re right. That’s true, as far as I’m aware. Point taken.
“Thank you. You don’t have to agree with me. You’ve looked into the policies and the messaging at rallies. What do you see? Does it reflect comin to terms with our social and ecological reality or is it based in envy and rage?”
INTERVIEWER: Fair enough.
She sits quiet for about 5 seconds and then says the reporters first name and says “Please tell me. I’d really like to know what you think of the policies currently. You’ve written articles related to the movements.”
INTERVIEWER: Those were about a year ago though.
She laughs. “I need to do my homework. I noticed the articles but didn’t actually read them.
INTERVIEWER : But let’s get back to talking about gratitude and appreciation. Aren’t there some cases where you need to give yourself credit?
“There’s the need to give myself credit or the need for me to take responsibility?”
INTERVIEWER : Well, I’m amazed. I’ve combed thru at least dozens of your speeches and dozens of your interviews, and I literally found no instance of you saying anything to anyone where you took credit.
“To me, taking responsibility is what’s important. That’s plenty to focus my mind on. There isn’t time to stop and think, ‘What did I accomplish?’ We ask that together in our staff meetings and in meetings with constituents and town halls and conferences.”
INTERVIEWER : It can be a matter self care where you stop to appreciate what you’ve achieved.
” Yes, I understand that part. But for me, self-care means managing my focus. But no, I certainly look back over the years or at last month, but it’s to evaluate the effectiveness of methods and measure progress toward goals, and to be honest, to check to see how I feel as a human being about what I’m doing. But it’s self-interest when I manage my load by not saying ‘I accomplished this’ and ‘I accomplished this other great thing.’ But yeah, I got to take responsibility for situations where I’m the final decision-maker. (She laughs) But that comes back to my appreciation of what others have done. I wouldn’t have the judgment with which to make decisions or the character to take responsibility for them if not for the many people who’ve been positive influences on my life. My parents and grandparents were helping me before I was aware of anything.”
INTERVIEWER : Let me go back many years to when there was the _____controversy in your city, right in the middle, or about in the middle of your second term as mayor. I was reading this last night. You were quoted in the _______newspaper as saying that “egotism is the bane of social progress.” What did you mean by that?
“That’s great you bring that up. Thank you. I was thinking a lot about my mom during that time and how she told me about Caribbean and other leaders in colonized places being easier for colonialists to manipulate if they were self-centered , and that colonial manipulation involved appeaking to the selfishness and egotism of local leaders. I saw some similarieties in how some of the low income residents in my city were being treated and how colonized people were being treated. At first, it wasn’t clear, what was going to happen, but I made a mental note that if the _______controversy blew up, I would spend zero mental energy on defending my actions as mayor, and instead keep the focus on the people who were, (and still are) being exploited and marginalized. I made up my mind that it wouldn’t be about defending myself, that it would be about the issues. I figured that if ______controversy cost me my political career, I’d do something else, such as be an activist or organizer of some sort. Or do something quietly of service. But again, that mentality I had in that controversy goes back to me being a sort of recipient of the very positive things that were shaping me as a child and a teen, emotionally and cognitively.
“When I started developing a work ethic at a young age, maybe 8 or 9, at the time, I had no clue about the many things that influenced me so that I had the good fortune of being a kid discovering the powerful, sort of addictive in a good way, sense of striving toward something.
“My parents had very good conscious intentions but I also think that, beyond their intenitons , they had an extraordinary interperonsal chemistry, and I was there all those years with them as an only child soaking all of that up.
interviewer: You have said that you wanted to grow up to be a singer or poet when you were a little girl. What changed to lead you to community involvement. I mean, you started participating in political groups locally when you were what ?
“I was 12.”
Int : Do you remember what lead to that, because, as you said in your book, you asked your mom to take you to these events and she got involved as part of that.
“Well, I give my parents a lot of credit. They often asked me what I thought about events in the world. But to answer your question, I began to get a sort of urgent interest in helping others when I realized that the sort of magical, amazing acceptance, encouragement, and love my parents showered me with wasn’t happening for a lot of other kids. I remember seeing parents who seemed burdened by their kids or kids that seemed ashamed or resentful toward the adults with them. I ‘d see them at the park or the library or the grocery.
“I was stunned. It’s like the opposite of the abused child who comes to realize that there bad home life is not the norm or that it should not be the norm. Again, it comes back to humility and gratitude. What I mean is that I didn’t spend much time feeling guilty about how beautiful my home life seemed compared to other people’s. Instead, I’m very happy to say, I took action. I see my doing that as the result of the wonderful family life I had. A lot of time and energy can be wasted on feeling guilty about how our own lives seem, inexplicably, to be better than others. Another waste of time and energy is feeling superior, that we somehow have earned our good fortune and that others somehow deserve their misfortune. Avoid both. Take action to be of service others.”
Interviewer : How does being service apply to those who are very unfortunate or those who are exploited or abused?
“You can be of service to those who share your circumstances, your family, your community. In an economic or occupational sense, you can be of service in a way that upholds your dignity. Obviously, you shouldn’t be expected to enable oppression, though unfortunately that does happen as people in marginalized communities often turn on one another when there is no way to challenge the actual forces that are exploiting them. Plus, for oppressed people, there is a high cost of challenging the structures of exploitation. But I’m glad you ask that, because gratitude and a sense of service toward others is not the same as subservience.”
2—–
Imagine a political candidate not striking an adversarial t tone. Some might think that if one does not have such an approach one is not serious about her cause or that one lacks courage.
The person giving the political speech :
“I am not demonizing the rich. Instead, I am asking them to join us, to help us build a more socially and ecologically responsible society. I say to anyone, whether they are a millionaire, a billionaire, or someone making a modest living or someone who is out of work and has very little money: do whatever you can to help make your communities, your country, and the world a better place.
“Though I sincerely invite the corporate elite and their allies in government to join us in expanding economic and political freedom, I realize that history has shown that those with extreme degrees of privilege and power do not often share that power willingly or peacefully.
“Many people I have spoken with all across this nation have asked me about philanthropy. Don’t the extremely rich do a lot of great works of charity? Don’t big corporations create goods and services that regular folk are glad to partake in and don’t big corporations fund many types of good causes?
“It is true they indeed do many do things. But what are we as citizens and as other members of this society when they do harmful things to our communities, to our national interest, to our planet? Are we to just stand by and figure it’s our fate to simply take the good with the bad? Is that what we tell our children who look to us for protection? Are we to hope, as they did during feudal times, that the king or the queen is in a good and generous mood today?
“Or ould we instead have a functioning system that puts checks on the accumulation of political and economic power. The ultraprivileged and the super-rich has tremendous resources they could, if they’d choose, put to purpose of promoting in earnest, social and ecological responsibility. At least a few of them have. But history has shown, we would not be responsible if we were to assume that
Philanthropy by itself will not solve our social and ecological crises. We need to create better systems. Focusing on systemic change requires us to make to avoid demonizing particular people or groups of people. But who is being demonized and who is least capable of defending themselves ?
It’s the concentration of power that drives cynicism and bitterness and rage and most of that it directed at scapegoats, not at the corporate elite. Many of those in our society facing the greatest challenges economically are being scapegoated. Ask yourself why that might be. Is it distract attention away from our the political establishment of both parties has for many decades served their big campaign donors and not the general welfare? Is the goal of demonization of some of the worst affected, socioeconomically marginalized people also to prevent coalitions between them and the working and middle classes? Thank you.”
As she made to exit the room, reporters shouted questions. “Ms. Fire” “Benevolence Fire…”
Some of them stubbornly clung to expecting her to sling mud at her opponents. Instead, she found one aspect their policies she agreed with. “I sincerely hope they build on that. I’d gladly help on that in particular, with the understanding that those programs should apply to all people in our country.”
Instead of denouncing the policy in question or saying that her opponents are immoral or stupid, she asked reporters. “How much of a look have you given their bill? How would it address the problem of _________without creating all these other problems such as ____ _______ _______? Who actually would benefit from this policy ? Did you look into who has funded and lobbied for it ? Instead of doing that, why don’t we _______________?”
3——
She is someone who time and again has risen above the pattern of slinging mud or denouncing her opponents. Before she rose in politics, many progressives had assumed they needed to “fight fire with fire” and match some of the nastiness of the political right. Some of them had thought that not doing that was tantamount to retreat. There were progressives who were speaking out against fighting fire with fire but for the most part they weren’t being listened to, not until Benevolence Fire was elected mayor of ______ and then later became a US House representative. Part of the joy that she inspires comes from long suppressed ideas on ecology, economics, culture, and politics being irigorously talked about because she refuses–actually I wouldn’t even say she ‘refuses’ to delve in drama and personality conflicts, because it seems she’s so immersed in addressing the issues that there is never even a fraction of an instant in which she seems to consider responding to an insult. Her ability to focus national and even global attention on the issues seems to frustrating and scaring some reactionary folk, as well as winning the admiration of some of them. A few well-known conservative writers have begun to writ4 approvingly of her, and have upended their careers. The field of journalism has also improved due to how her focus on the issues has affected reporting. As she herself had said during interviews, many factors of the human condition combined during her childhood and young adult to present her with a responsibility
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