Happy Birthday, Little Sister and to all the Little Sisters Everywhere

Today, I want to take a pause from the suffering and dislocations arising from the freedom movement that is spreading across the Arab world.

A pause to say “Happy Birthday” little sister.

Today is my sister’s birthday, and I hope everyone who reads my blog will stop for a second and think of her.

She is special in many ways - a great cook, a fabulous homemaker and seamstress, a kind and loving daughter to our mother who is 90 and bed-ridden, a never-failing support for her husband who is an invalid veteran, a political mover who takes politics right down to the grass roots of her community to try to make things better for everyone and especially for those who have no other champion.

But above all, she is one of the most honest and forthright people I have ever known. She advises me at every turn. She never fails to find the right touch to keep me pointed at the truth in ordinary life and not just in intellectual argument.

She loves all things mechanical. Had she been a boy, I’m sure she would have ended up on the NASCAR tracks, but when she was young enough, it wasn’t possible for girls to do such things.

She never fails to wear her American flag pin, and she always finds a little red-white-and-blue for every patriotic occasion. The amazing thing is that with all her patriotism, she is brutally frank when America makes a wrong step or takes the wrong turn in the road. Her love of country is not a knee-jerk reaction but a deep belief in the democratic system that is America at its best.

She knows more about Abraham Lincoln than most of us, so I’ve found a quote from the man from Illinois that suits her pretty well:

"And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years."

Happy Birthday, Missy. Don’t give up on us because we need you and all the others like you everywhere in the world.