NB: This may not be a word-for-word transcript. Meryl Streep’s Speech at the Democratic National Convention July 27, 2016 Woo! Ooh. We got some fight left in us, don’t we? What does it take to be the first female anything? It takes grit and it takes grace. Debra Sampson was the first woman to take a bullet for our country. She served, disguised as a man, in George Washington’s Continental Army. And she fought to defend a document that didn’t fully defend her. “All men are created equal,” it read. No mention of women. And when she took a blast in battle to her leg, she was afraid to reveal her secret. So she took out a penknife, she dug out the musket ball, and she sewed herself back up again. That’s grit.
And tonight, more than 200 years after Debra Sampson fought, and nearly 100 years after women got the vote, you people have made history. And you’re gonna make history again in November. Because Hillary Clinton will be our first woman President. And she will be a great President. And she will be the first in a long line of women and men who serve with grit and grace. She’ll be the first, but she won’t be the last. |
|