Madeleine M. Kunin
Madeleine M. Kunin
Madeleine May Kuninis an American diplomat and politician. She was the 77th Governor of Vermont from 1985 until 1991, as a member of the Democratic Party. She also served as United States Ambassador to Switzerland from 1996 to 1999. She was Vermont's first and, to date, only female governor as well as the first Jewish governor of Vermont. She was also the first Jewish woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state. Kunin is currently a James Marsh Professor-at-Large...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDiplomat
Date of Birth28 September 1933
CountryUnited States of America
Like art, political action gives shape and expression to the things we fear as well as to those we desire. It is a creative process, drawing on the power to imagine as well as to act.
Politics creates an almost endless time horizon into the future. ... As governor I had the incredible luxury of being able to dream on a grand scale. And this sense of infinite possibility gives politics its romance.
If we are serious about providing upward mobility and building a skilled workforce, pre-school is the place to begin.
Investment in early education is not a Liberal or Conservative idea. Nor should it be decided along party lines.
If months were marked by colors, November in New England would be colored gray.
Fair treatment in the work force is no longer exclusively a labor issue, nor is it a women's issue - it is a fundamental economic issue.
Early childhood education begins early, even before birth.
Children refuse to compromise. Adults learn how.
Babies are smart. They can tell the difference between a responsive face and a blank face, wiped clean of emotion.
Are there really good wars and bad wars? We thought so during World War II, and in retrospect, we were right. But in Vietnam, and Iraq we were wrong.
What some men don't understand is that by opposing policies to reduce violence, promote equal pay and universal healthcare and voting to limit access to contraception and legal abortion, they are relegating women to another century, a time when men ruled exclusively and women were considered property and had to be guided by a firm masculine hand.
There are not many female role models to guide voters, and the tradition that a Southern woman's place is in the home still lingers in some quarters.
It is the future, of course, which politicians grapple with, and that is why politics is so disorderly. Only history clears away some of the debris.
It's time to recognize what compromise means: no side wins or loses all.