{"id":400,"date":"2007-01-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html"},"modified":"2007-01-05T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-05T12:00:00","slug":"jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Spycher: Pelosi’s Swearing-in and My Fifth Grade Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Since yesterday morning, I\u2019ve been trying to figure out why I am so fascinated with Nancy Pelosi\u2019s swearing in as the Speaker of the House. I have researched her biography and political positions online, watched archived clips of her speeches, and as much press coverage of her swearing in as possible. I am excited about the change in direction that her leadership symbolizes and the promised legislative agenda. But more than that, I can only attribute my preoccupation with Nancy Pelosi to pride.<\/p>\n

Through their actions and political commitment, my parents taught me that there is little more important than service and civic-mindedness. And so, at the age of ten, I announced I wanted to be a congresswoman when I grew up. I made my intentions known, only to be told by a teacher that I couldn\u2019t do that. I was a girl. Didn\u2019t I want to be a wife and mother? Even as I child, I knew this man\u2019s remarks were wrong, but I dropped my head and said nothing.<\/p>\n

My story isn\u2019t special, and unfortunately it\u2019s not uncommon. I suppose in some way, Nancy Pelosi\u2019s swearing in validates my fifth grade dream. It also proves that a woman can be a national, top ranking, political figure in our country. One glass ceiling has been broken, but there is another one untouched. When will the United States elect a woman to its highest political office?<\/p>\n

A country on every inhabited continent has seen female heads of government – Chile, Finland, Mozambique, New Zealand, South Korea, and Canada, among others. But as a country that leads in so many other areas, the U.S. has greatly fallen short in women in political leadership positions. Nancy Pelosi is helping to change that.<\/p>\n

While Speaker Pelosi’s ranking as our government’s #3 in power is a start, I hope this forward momentum continues. Whether it’s Nancy, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, or someone else, I hope that the United States will soon be counted among the countries that have put faith in women’s leadership.<\/p>\n

Jackie Spycher <\/span>is the intern and volunteer coordinator for Sojourners\/Call to Renewal.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since yesterday morning, I\u2019ve been trying to figure out why I am so fascinated with Nancy Pelosi\u2019s swearing in as the Speaker of the House. I have researched her biography and political positions online, watched archived clips of her speeches, and as much press coverage of her swearing in as possible. I am excited about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJackie Spycher: Pelosi's Swearing-in and My Fifth Grade Dream - God's Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jackie Spycher: Pelosi's Swearing-in and My Fifth Grade Dream - God's Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since yesterday morning, I\u2019ve been trying to figure out why I am so fascinated with Nancy Pelosi\u2019s swearing in as the Speaker of the House. I have researched her biography and political positions online, watched archived clips of her speeches, and as much press coverage of her swearing in as possible. I am excited about…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God's Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-01-05T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/images\/congress\/jan-june07\/0104_house_bhead.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"God's Politics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jackie Spycher: Pelosi's Swearing-in and My Fifth Grade Dream - God's Politics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jackie Spycher: Pelosi's Swearing-in and My Fifth Grade Dream - God's Politics","og_description":"Since yesterday morning, I\u2019ve been trying to figure out why I am so fascinated with Nancy Pelosi\u2019s swearing in as the Speaker of the House. I have researched her biography and political positions online, watched archived clips of her speeches, and as much press coverage of her swearing in as possible. I am excited about…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html","og_site_name":"God's Politics","article_published_time":"2007-01-05T12:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/images\/congress\/jan-june07\/0104_house_bhead.jpg"}],"author":"God's Politics","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html","name":"Jackie Spycher: Pelosi's Swearing-in and My Fifth Grade Dream - God's Politics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/images\/congress\/jan-june07\/0104_house_bhead.jpg","datePublished":"2007-01-05T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-01-05T12:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/19c93dd9f2f493f929f7efba4ad46a65"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/images\/congress\/jan-june07\/0104_house_bhead.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/images\/congress\/jan-june07\/0104_house_bhead.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/01\/jackie-spycher-pelosis-swearin.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jackie Spycher: Pelosi’s Swearing-in and My Fifth Grade Dream"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/","name":"God's Politics","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/19c93dd9f2f493f929f7efba4ad46a65","name":"God's Politics","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fac\/fac28617c05da947253e4433013eeec8x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fac\/fac28617c05da947253e4433013eeec8x96.jpg","caption":"God's Politics"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/author\/rrodrickbeiler"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}