American Election News

Jordan, a student at PSU, is a field organizer for Oregon for Hillary. Fourteen years ago, she met the then-First Lady in a meeting arranged by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. At just eight years old, Jordan had endured two heart operations, cancer and a kidney transplant. People like Jordan are the reason why Hillary is in this race.

On Friday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning — I had jumped the gun by two hours. However it’s not every day you get to reunite with your life-long hero, hence my anxiousness. As an eight-year-old girl recovering from renal failure, I first met then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House.

I am 22 now, and in less than four hours I would be meeting Hillary yet again. Only this time she was coming to my neck of the woods, Portland, Oregon, and not as First Lady, but as Senator Clinton, Democratic presidential hopeful. Our reunion would take place at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, a place that has given me a second chance at life on numerous occasions.

Upon seeing her at last, I met her half way as she greeted me with open arms. This was history coming full circle and I could barely contain my nerves. In an attempt to compose myself, I recalled the advice of my father who told me days prior, “Remember this isn’t about you. Just remember what you are there for.” I tried to keep in mind the bigger picture, and thus the larger-than-self meaning behind Hillary’s visit.

More important than me was the Senator’s effort to revisit the cause she so vigorously championed during the time of our first meeting. Universal health care is as she said — “unfinished business.” I have the luxury of being relatively healthy now, and more so, have had the luxury of being insured, making my trials much easier for me and my family to deal with. The same can’t be said for 43 percent of the patients currently treated at Doernbecher.

As a former patient I now had the honor of guiding the Senator on a tour of the intermediate care ward. Her candor and grace immediately struck me, and her inquisitive nature made her effortlessly approachable. Watching the Senator reach out to one young man, clearly suffering from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation — a distant memory in my mind — prompted flashbacks, which further reinforced my sense of place and purpose.

At 9:30 the visit culminated in a roundtable discussion in the main courtyard where dozens of doctors, patients and their families braved the cold to hear the Senator make her case for why every American must have health care. We heard from two mothers of ill children treated at Doernbecher — two separate stories as case in point for how the current health care system has failed its people, and in this particular instance, its children. “How can we expect to achieve Universal Health Care if the stated goal is something far less?” Hillary asked of the hospital’s onlookers.

This is why I support Senator Clinton. She was ahead of her time when she first worked to achieve universal health care fourteen years ago and she has refused to give up since. I am thoroughly convinced that, above all, Hillary has a personal interest in seeing this come to fruition, and we know she won’t shy away from the fight ahead. I’m for Hillary because she’s a fighter like me.

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