Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren stopped at Mount Holyoke College on April 21st to promote her new book This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle To Save America's Middle Class. As she spoke in the packed College's Chapin Auditorium, estimated by the Daily Hampshire Gazette to have had 1,100 people in attendance, the crowd hung on her every word, laughing at her quips and giving her a standing ovation when she came on stage as well as at the end of her talk.
While reading from her book, Warren offered many thoughts on not only the middle class but Trump's presidency, calling him out for controversial remarks by members of his administration and flaws in his policies, "I never thought 'fact' was a word I'd have to learn adjectives for."
Warren also shared how she has been dealing with the outcome of the election, "I went to see Donald Trump inaugurated. I wanted to see it with my own eyes. It burned. And every morning I wake up and think 'What can I do today?'"
"Let me just start by saying...that a lot of Mount Holyoke women helped me to get elected," she said. "And everyday, when I go to Washington to the capital, I drive by Frances Perkins' building, which is the Labor Department, and I always look up and say, 'We're going to do it today, Frances.'" Warren commended the 1902 Mount Holyoke alumna Perkins--who was also the first ever female Cabinet member, appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as Secretary of Labor in 1933--for being an influential person behind the creation of Social Security and other aspects of the New Deal during the Great Depression.
Warren continued her message of hope during the question and answer session, answering audience questions about how to give hope to children struggling with the outcome of the election, get involved in what can feel like an overwhelming time, and answer people who disagree with the idea of universal healthcare. She encouraged concerned audience members to use their inspiration to become engaged. "Get connected," she said, "Two voices are twice as strong as one." And lastly, she encouraged audience members to do something everyday.
Warren spent a lot of her talk focused on healthcare and the current state of politics in America. "The fight going on in Congress right now is really about what who the government works for and what our values are. The budget is not a numbers document, it's a values document," she said.
In light of last few weeks, Warren said that she believes America has moved toward the fact that healthcare is a basic human right with yet another unsuccessful attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. "The ground is shifting, but we're still on the defensive."
"I think we're going to be on the defensive for Trumpcare, but the offensive for single-payer, universal healthcare," she continued.
"Let's be clear: the world changed when Donald Trump got elected. But it also changed on the day of the Women's March," she said.
"I feel like this is a moment when our country is being tested...about what kind of country we're going to be and build...it's a test of character. The character of a country, is not the character of its president." It's the character of its people.
