Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,talk.politics.misc
Subject: I Met Bill Clinton Today
Supersedes: <92211.132332U45301@uicvm.uic.edu>
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Wednesday, 29 Jul 1992 14:33:49 CDT
From: Mary Jacobs <U45301@uicvm.uic.edu>

A little clarification first:

I am not employed by any political organization.  The following are
simply my personal reactions to seeing and meeting Bill Clinton today
and are my views and impressions of the experience.  I thought they
might be useful to some members of this group to read of someone's
personal reactions to such an event.  I do not pretend to speak for
Bill Clinton nor claim that my perceptions of his statements are
100% accurate as to his personal views.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a person who has had four close relatives die of breast cancer,
including my mother when I was only six years old, I was very
eager to hear that Bill Clinton was coming to LaGrange, IL, home of
"Y-Me," the breast cancer organization, to speak on the issue of
women's health.

His speech was an excellent one IMHO.  As I heard it, he stated in his
speech his desire to enhance the attention paid to women's health
issues and to increase funding for breast cancer, osteoporosis,
and other women's health problems.  He bemoaned the veto of a recent
health bill by Bush which resulted in $300 million dollars
pegged for breast cancer research to be denied to this cause.
He supported the use of RU486 for medical purposes for which
it might be employed such as breast and other cancer therapy.
He supported health insurance for all Americans.

Clinton, to me, showed a remarkable rapport with and respect for
the crowd gathered, which had waited for his arrival under a hot sun
while he was in Chicago traffic.  I felt his demeanor was genuine and
sincere.  He thanked the crowd for waiting, apologized for being
late, and took the time to interact with the crowd in a personal
manner before delivering his speech.

After his speech, he took questions from the crowd and answered
each one thoughtfully.  He stated that it is his practice to always
have time for interchange with the people who have come to hear him
speak.

After the questions, Clinton spent a great deal of time going into
the crowd, meeting people, and chatting with them on a one-to-one
basis.

I was positioned in front of a barricade near the TV crews and Clinton
stopped and talked to each of us in this area as he prepared to
end the rally and talk to the TV reporters.  He did not rush
nor act as if this were some obligatory chore that he did not really
believe in.  Instead, he seemed genuinely interested in meeting
each person and in chatting with them briefly.

He shook my hand and it was a firm, caring, and warm handskake to me.
He looked me straight in the eye when we talked and his eyes were kind.
We talked of our being the same age and of how we had been in the same year
in high school (though attending school in different states).  We discussed
his opportunity to meet and shake hands with John
Kennedy in 1963 during the year our age-group were seniors in high school,
something that I had always wanted to do but had not gotten the opportunity.
I felt it was a very human and friendly brief chat about our similar
high school experiences and hopes and dreams.

To me, he had a clear-eyed and intelligent look as we talked, and I felt
he gave his full attention to each person that he conversed with,
listening to what each of us had to say.  His concentration seemed
intense and genuine and I got the feeling I had successfully
interacted with him, if only briefly.  To me, this was quite rewarding.

After he had left the area, I was struck by a feeling that I had
actually communicated with a presidential candidate who had been
truly interested in talking to me and listening to what I had to say,
and who had devoted the energy and taken the time to listen to
people he met in the crowd despite a busy schedule.  I left the
rally feeling buoyed and hopeful that many more people in this
country will have a chance to be heard and listened to if they
have the opportunity to communicate in some fashion with Bill Clinton.

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| Mary Jacobs            | This is MY view;  |"There is another alter-  |
| U45301@UICVM           |  not the view of  |native than to obtain the |
| U45301@uicvm.cc.uic.edu|     the " U "     |superfluities."--Thoreau  |
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Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,talk.politics.guns