Over the past several weeks, I was often brought back in time to twenty years ago when juggling family responsibilities, work & press requests were my daily reality. We didn't have cows, and our dogs were much smaller and shed a lot less. Our house was a fraction of its size today, and Chuck and I were changing diapers and trying to sleep through the night, not figure out how to get a tire changed in Evanston or help college daughters navigate unvaccinated roommates' overnight guests. While my life has changed dramatically, and the before and after pictures are a vivid illustration of that passage of time, and the media business has been completely transformed, I discovered that my interest in being chronicled by the media remains the same: at best, ambivalent. Photo by Cindy Schultz for The New York Times However, new outlets allow me to frame my own message. So I am sharing the speech as prepared for delivery (I can't ever give it word-for-word, but I hued pretty clo
Chuck, my mom, Elizabeth and me at Lancaster Castle, UK (the trip we scheduled instead of Italy) I am a former politician who has worked in education for the last nearly twenty years, so I am not a medical expert. But, I had a baptism in virus, infection, and immune systems last year that gives me a unique perspective on the coronavirus debate as a wife and mother. I also was the Governor (acting Governor if you want) during 9-11, and my husband and I had just invested significant savings into a small business in 2008/9, so I also have some experience with fear-induced recessions from multiple perspectives. I've been reflecting on those personal and professional experiences as I've tried to give counsel to those making difficult coronavirus decisions. I have also had to make some hard coronavirus decisions recently. And, I've seen a lot of debate - particularly on parent-Facebook pages for colleges - around the decisions being made by college leaders on the coronavir