As a child, Elizabeth dreamed about going to college and becoming a teacher. But her parents were
fearful of the costs, for Dad was a maintenance man and mother a phone operator at Sears in a small town in Oklahoma. Her older brother Don served in the military; brother John had a union job operating a crane; youngest brother David started two businesses. Elizabeth did go to college, did become a teacher first with special-needs children and later with law students, then got involved in politics. This book follows her up to becoming a US
Senator.
Early marriage, two daughters, and a divorce, followed by a second happy marriage, grandchildren, plus running a home (in various places), and teaching Sunday school and law students…all these brought her to opening her eyes to “why do so many people go bankrupt?” This became her obsession; it kept her awake at night; she began to eat, sleep, pray, and dream about
bankruptcy.
When she was called to Washington, she didn’t know how she could give up the many family gatherings, time with her children, her love life with her husband, and go to the daily grind that was to be her life for so many years. The many unhappy persons with whom she had talked who had gone into a bankruptcy that had disrupted their whole way of life….their stories haunted
her and she didn’t know how she could not go to Washington to give everyone “a fighting chance”.
Finally she agreed to go to the Capitol to advise Congress on rewriting the bankruptcy laws. For ten years Elizabeth fought fiercely against the dysfunctional ways of Washington. Why wouldn’t the government be held accountable during the financial crises? She dreamed of a new agency to
protect citizens from predatory bankers, from false claims about manufactured items, about rising interest on credit cards, etc. She enlisted the help of many wise assistants, but knew she was best qualified for the director’s job. It was denied .
To run as Senator of Massachusetts was what her associates suggested to this sixty-two year old grandmother and wise lady. She had never
run for office and didn’t know how excruciating this could be, but she ran and she beat Scott Brown by a wide margin. She holds that seat in the Senate today and is being urged to run as the next Democratic president.
Unselfish to the last, she is still working for a FIGHTING CHANCE for everyone in the country.
