The Pioneering Woman You've Never Heard Of

 

 

When you hear the name Clare Boothe Luce, I bet it does not register in your mind. You have never heard about Clare Boothe Luce in your history books, your government classes, or your women’s studies classes. Nevertheless, she is an important part of history, had a large role in our government, and was a very influential woman.

Fear not. If your teachers won’t teach you about Clare Boothe Luce, I will.

Clare Boothe Luce was born in 1903, sixteen years before women had the right to vote nationally in the United States. At the age of 30, she became the managing editor of Vanity Fair. This was a massive accomplishment, especially when you consider that Time Magazine, which started only ten years after Vanity Fair, did not have its first female Managing Editor until 2013.

Clare was also an accomplished playwright. Her most popular play, The Women, ran on Broadway for 657 performances and was made into a movie twice, once in 1939 and again in 2008. The 2008 version starred Meg Ryan (Top Gun, When Harry Met Sally), Jada Pinkett Smith (wife of Will), Eva Mendes (Ryan Gosling’s baby mama), and Debra Messing (Will & Grace).

Clare was also an accomplish war journalist for Life magazine, doing interviews with such people as General Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-Shek, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. Her interview with General Douglas MacArthur was on the cover of Life on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor.

Clare Booth Luce was elected to Congress from Connecticut’s fourth district in 1943. While in Congress, she became the first woman to sit on the Military Affairs Committee and was instrumental in the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission.

In 1953, Clare Boothe Luce did something no woman had ever done before. She was appointed to be the US Ambassador to Italy, becoming the first woman to hold a major ambassadorial post. At the time, Italy was dealing with a land dispute with Yugoslavia and combating its communist constituency.

Italy was not receptive to Clare at first, but she soon proved them wrong. Within two years, the Trieste crisis with Yugoslavia was solved, and the port was returned to Italy. She also completed seventeen other diplomatic assignments during her time in Italy.

A story you’ll never hear is the story of how Clare Boothe Luce survived arsenic poisoning.

While serving in Italy, Clare became increasingly ill. Blood tests revealed that arsenic was to blame. Because Clare was so outspoken against communism, foul play was feared. A CIA investigation revealed the true cause of the poisoning. Clare’s bedroom ceiling was painted with ornate roses, and that paint contained arsenate of lead. The particles from the paint (triggered by the vibration of the washing machine above) were falling down onto Clare while she slept, relaxed, or worked in bed.

After serving as Ambassador to Italy, and briefly to Brazil, Clare served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Broad for Nixon and Reagan.

In 1983, President Reagan presented Clare with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the first female member of Congress to receive the award.

Clare Boothe Luce blazed trails not only for women, but for Americans, and yet she is left out of history books as if she never mattered at all.

I challenge you to remember Clare Boothe Luce and investigate other important people in our nation’s history who have been seemingly forgotten.

If you are interested in learning more about Clare Boothe Luce, check out the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, named after this amazing woman, at cblpi.org

Several biographies have been written about Clare Boothe Luce, by authors such as Wilfred Sheed and Stephen Shadegg, and Daniel Alf.

 

Read this original post from The Odyssey Online

http://theodysseyonline.com/yale/who-is-clare-boothe-luce/136918

The 2016 Reading Challenge

Election day is just over 450 days away, and if you're like me, you still don't have your candidate picked quite yet. As a Conservative, I have an ocean full of fish to pick from. The Democratic candidate is not quite decided yet either, despite what the Clinton Camp would like you to believe.

 

I am an avid reader. I always have been, and I always will be. I love books, and I think they can reveal so much about the author, the muse, and the reader. Because of this, and because I'm at a loss for what else to read, I am going to spend the next 450 days reading books written by 2016 presidential candidates. I want to read for myself what these candidates think, and about their life experiences, and take each with a grain of salt. Then, I will decide which candidate I will support. Below is a little graphic for the challenge that I made. Feel free to print it out and play along. Many of the candidates have multiple books to choose from. Very few candidates are not published authors, including Graham, Christie, Gilmore and O'Malley.  That leaves me with 18 books to read by Election Day.

 

Wish me luck.

 



You're Having My Baby: One Direction, Wedlock, and Friendship

A chronic fear of teenage girls for decades has finally come true: Louis Tomlinson got a girl pregnant.   The story has been circulating the internet for a few weeks now, but at first, it was assumed to be a hoax. One Direction Fans took to the internet to call the story everything from fake to disgusting to a crime. Then, Simon Cowell opened his big mouth and said he was excited for the One Direction crooner to be a father.

 

The internet was still skeptical. But finally, on Good Morning America, the expecting dad confirmed the news himself.

So, what’s the big deal? Louis Tomlinson is 22, and certainly not the first celebrity to get a girl pregnant out of wedlock. In fact, I know several men his age and younger who are already married with multiple kids.

 

The problem is that Louis Tomlinson is not married to the woman he got pregnant. In fact, as many sources are reporting, they are not even dating. There is no official commitment between the two except the life growing inside of her.

There is something wrong with our society when we view this as normal. As I’m sure we are all aware, it takes a man and a woman to make a baby, and studies have shown that is what it takes to raise one. How can we normalize bringing a child into a world where the parents are just simply friends who have fooled around a few too many times?

 

There is a big difference between friendships and a relationship. The lack of solid commitment in any friendship is not something you want to bring a child into. Without a relationship outside of that child, what kind of bond are you going to be able to build between child and parents?

Yes, children are born out of wedlock every day. That is undisputable. But it is not every day that a man who is part of one of the most popular musical acts on the planet does it, and gets praised.

Accidents happen, but we need to start asking ourselves whether we should accept this behavior as the new normal, or push for change? Think about a new friend you have made in the past year. Maybe they are ridiculously attractive. Maybe you like being around them. Do you want to have their baby?  

Louis Tomlinson is not the first man to have a baby out of wedlock, and he won’t be the last, but I hope he will use this experience to make a statement that this is not something to be lauded. Any pairing of male and female friends can lie down and make a baby, but does that mean they should?

I have several friends that I care deeply about, and some who are very successful (though not One Direction successful) but that does not mean I’m ready to have their baby with only the promise of friendship to keep me warm at night.