where have all the good guys and girls gone!

Politics is not going to be a huge forum for me on my blog (the candidates bore me to tears) but I wanted to chat about our senator Hillary Clinton. This particular incident has bothered me for years! From the first year I started my business in 1996 until 2002 my company only provided event designing and planning, my retail line did not exist up to this point. In the summer of 2001 (I was living in my shop from 1997 until late in 2001) I was desperate to get ahead and of course I was not going to give up. I decided to write a letter to Oprah introducing my company. I also sent her photo copies of pictures from events we had done. I told her if there was anything she may need in terms of event coordinating or event designing to let me know. Of course everyone in my building complex along with the couple of employees I had laughed their asses off when I told them what I had done and let them know Oprah would be calling! 3 days after I sent the letter the phone rang and it was a woman calling from Oprah's office. She informed me that Oprah loved my work and wanted me to come up with a retail item that could be shipped anywhere in the country. I created boxed in blooms and it was due to go into her magazine on her "O" list in November 2001. September 11th 2001 the world trade center was hit and the world changed. I had one brother who is a NY City Fireman, another who had just resigned but was called back into the NY City Police Dept. New York stood still as we all tried to comprehend the totality of this tragedy. As friends and family in Pearl River NY (huge population of Irish, cops, fireman, policeman, nurses and teachers, most transplanted from the Bronx) attended funeral after funeral for a year, I struggled to hold on to my business. As event work disappeared in the city and elaborate parties came to a halt I had the Oprah magazine coming out in November and thought that would sustain my company so there was light at the end of the tunnel and I just needed to hang on. Then around September 21st the phone rang and it was once again Oprah's office informing me that under the circumstances they were changing the layout of the November issue due to the events of September 11th and they would call to let me know what issue we were going in. I waited and waited and waited. In the meantime I thought of our dear senator and thought she was there for the people of NY and represented women and our struggles, god was I wrong!!!! I wrote telling her how my business was devastated and we were trying to keep afloat. If there were any suggestions on networking with other women, any organizations she knew who could possibly help us while we tried to figure out how to get business back into NY would be greatly appreciated. I emailed Hillary 8 times over the next few months and never once did she respond. Hillary was not there for us New Yorkers, nor was she there for a fellow woman but Oprah was and my boxed in blooms was featured on the "O" list in February 2002. My retail line was born!