[Vision2020] First or the Only

[Tom Hansen]

>From this morning's (April 30, 2006) "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer -

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First or Only
By Bob Schieffer

When I was a young reporter covering the Pentagon, I had a great friend
named Daniel Chappie James. He was an African American and he became a
famous fighter pilot in Vietnam, where he and his wing commander Robin Olds
were know as "blackman and Robin." 

He achieved four star rank in the Air Force but he told me one day there
would never be full equality until we no longer noticed that someone was the
"first...or the only." 

I thought about Chappie as I went over today's guests on Face the Nation.
All of them are women -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Senators
Lisa Murkowski and Maria Cantwell -- and I wondered, did anyone notice? 

We don't invite guests to Face the Nation because of race and gender, we
invite key players in the week's big stories, but with more and more women
now in positions of power, it follows that on a given week, the key players
these days may all be women. 

There was a time when that made some uncomfortable -- it may still-- but
they had better get used to it. Newsweek reports that girls are
outperforming boys at every level from the third grade on. We'll be seeing
more women at the top levels of every profession. 

By now, Condoleezza Rice is neither the first woman, nor the first African
American to hold her powerful post. Who would have imagined that 20 years
ago? 

My friend Chappie James is gone now, but he would have liked Face the Nation
today. What he would have noticed is that none of our guests was the "first
OR the only."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly used
up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"