Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), just elected to the Senate in November, is off to a rousing start. At the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., she invoked her history of heroism in order to stand for the rights of Americans with disabilities in a powerful way:
“I did not give up – literally parts of my body – to have the constitution trampled on.”
Duckworth is an excellent confluence of the best that patriotism can embody, an Asian-American woman with a disability that she got fighting for the country. Duckworth suffered combat wounds and lost both of her legs in Iraq, becoming the war’s first female double amputee. She also happens to be the first member of Congress from Thailand.
A lesser remarked upon moment on the 2016 campaign trail was when Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of an Asian-American man asking him a question. Donald Trump asked if the man was from South Korea. The young man replied:
“I’m not. I was born in Texas, and raised in Colorado.”
Trump questioning the legitimacy of the young man is one of several moments that highlights that he doesn’t believe that Asian-Americans are “real Americans” or that they belong here at all. Tammy Duckworth is not having it.
In her speech, she emphasized that she had shed blood for her country – something Donald Trump may have used illegal methods to avoid, according to the New York Times. She took the time to defend the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“They’re not going to roll back the Americans with Disabilities Act, because without the ADA, I would not be here today!”
It’s especially important to highlight our commitment to Americans with disabilities now, given a president that mocks them, and a nominee for Education Secretary who can’t fully commit to protecting them within schools.
Duckworth is a stalwart example of the people that we have fighting for us as we move forward, and that we will ask to push back and censure Donald Trump’s agenda in the harshest terms possible.
Watch her speech here:
Sen. Tammy Duckworth: "I didn't give up — literally parts of my body — to have the Constitution trampled on." https://t.co/oS2ZqDrcKx
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 21, 2017
Featured image via screenshot from Twitter video
