For years, I rarely told people that I worked for US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
At first, it was because I was concerned for my safety. Then I feared for my reputation. And after those feelings dissipated, I was embarrassed because I failed her, and in ways failed me.
McKinney was a dynamic political figure out of Georgia who lost her seat after she questioned the Bush Administration’s knowledge of terrorist intelligence following the tragedy on September 11, 2001.
In 2004, McKinney won her district back, but only to lose it after one term. The powers that be did everything to strip her of humanity.
While I worked in her Georgia offices, she was called a bitch, a troublemaker, a racist, unpatriotic, and nigger frequently. The most problematic terms were crazy and angry black woman because people easily wrote her off as irrelevant an unintelligible.
And she was far from that.
Though flawed like all of us, McKinney carries backbone and principle that is oft foreign on Capital Hill.
