Guest Editorial: Nancy Pelosi Is Not My HeroTommi Avicolli Meccabyline‚ Nov. 10‚ 2006San Francisco Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi should be my hero. She’s about to become the first female Speaker of the House in American history. She’s also the first Italian American. But identity politics isn’t enough. Sure, it’s great that she’s the first woman and Italian to be one heartbeat from the highest office in the land. America’s “come a long way baby,” since the days when women were supposed to be barefoot and pregnant and Italians were gangsters in the movies. The country needs more than entries in the Guinness Book of Records. It needs real change. Nancy Pelosi isn’t going to do that. She’s certainly an improvement over the corrupt leadership that Congress has had for 12 years. She’s already talking about some worthy goals, including raising the minimum wage (hopefully to a living wage) and reducing the cost of medicine (universal healthcare would do that, though she hasn’t mentioned that yet). The problem is: She doesn’t represent my “San Francisco values.” |