Amy Klobuchar - Nevertheless, We Persisted: 48 Voices of Defiance, Strength, and Courage

She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.

I was on the Senate floor on February 7, 2017, when these words were spoken about my colleague Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Tensions were running high; tempers, too.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

These words were meant to mark the end of a heated debate, but instead they marked an important beginning.

By the next morning, #ShePersisted was trending on Twitter. A few weeks later, more than one hundred women in my home state of Minnesota lined up to get a tattoo of the words.

Nevertheless, she persisted became a rallying cry for anyone who has ever stood up for whats right. The phrase became a real comfort for anyone who has beaten the oddswhich is almost everyone. And it became the inspiration for this bookwhich is filled with powerful essays by people who have persisted.

In these pages, youll read about a woman who lost her young brother far too early and a paraplegic athlete who coaches wheelchair basketball in war-torn countries. Youll learn from hardworking underdogs, unlikely leaders, and incredible people who took on whatever life threw at them. They all faced adversity. They all rose above it. And they all inspired others to join them on their journeys of hope.

I dont know many lawmakers or leaders who havent faced adversity. So often, its that struggle that leads us to lead.

I have a wonderful dad who was a sports reporter and longtime newspaper columnist. But for decades he also battled alcoholism. His addiction took its toll on his life and our family. After his well-publicized arrest for a DWI, I sat down with my dad to tell him all the ways he was hurting both himself and the people he cared about. But I also told him that I loved him and that I knew he could save himself. He did, and he has lived out the last decades of his life sober, grateful, andto use his own wordspursued by grace.

Years later I was elected prosecutor for Minnesotas largest county. Every day I met families that were being torn apart by the loss of loved ones to drunk drivers. I led the effort to pass Minnesotas first felony DWI law. And now, as a senator, I am taking on the fight to end the opioid epidemic by increasing access to treatment and doing everything we can to prevent addiction before it starts.

I dont want another teenager to have to take the keys from her dad. Or a little kid to have to worry about when his mom is coming home. So when it comes to legislating on this stuff, I wont take no for an answer.

Now, let me tell you, its not always easy for women to persist in the United States Senate.

Over the course of our nations history, we have had nearly two thousand men in the Senatebut only fifty women! And twenty-one of those women are serving today. The women of the Senate are the hardest-working, most effective legislators I know. A recent analysis showed that the Senates women not only introduce more legislation than the men do, they also work better together to get it passed.

Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine led efforts on the budget and taxes for decades. In 2013, Senator Susan Collins, also from Maine, led a group of fourteen senatorssix of them womenin presenting a proposal to end the government shutdown. Senator Patty Murray of Washington led the budget negotiations after that.

Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan spearheaded the 2014 farm bill. Together, Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Maria Cantwell of Washington crafted the 2017 energy bill. Senator Barbara Boxer of California shepherded the transportation bill of 2015 through Congress. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California released the report on torture during the Iraq War. Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York are leading the fight against sexual assault in the military. And all the women of the Senate came together to support my bill to combat human trafficking.

But sometimes the smallest victories are the most memorable. A few years ago, I sent out a tweet that went viral. It said that for the first time in the history of the Senate, we had a traffic jam in the womens bathroom.

Thats when Senator Barbara Mikulski of Marylandthen the dean of the Senate womenand I appointed ourselves to the Expand the Women Senators Bathroom Committee.

Soon after, the architect of the Capitol presented us with a plan to add one stall. Barbara looked at the plan and said, Its a bathroom for the present. We want a bathroom for the futureone for fifty women senators!

We both looked at the architect, and I said, Thats right. Its a glass-ceiling bathroom plan.

Of course, no one messes with Barbara Mikulski. We got the extra stalls.

The women of the Senate have all beaten the odds. Theyre all determined to get things done for the American people. And Id add that not one of them is afraid to take chances, andeven more importantlynone is afraid to fail.

Failure is a big part of persisting. It just is. Ask, well, pretty much anyone. Before Oprah was Oprah, she was fired from her job coanchoring the six oclock news in Baltimore. Before Bill Gates launched Microsoft, he had a company called Traf-O-Data. Ever heard of it? Me neither. In fact, Ben & Jerrys has a Flavor Graveyard for all those dearly de-pinted flavors that have been pulled from store shelves.

Its important to try. Sometimes it will work out. Sometimes it wont. But then youve got to get back up and try again.

You see, obstacles dont just challenge us. They change us. They shift the way we view the world, help us grow stronger, and even encourage us to make friends we might not otherwise have.

I once heard the story of a humor writer, Jane Lotter of Seattle, who developed terminal cancer and decided to write her own obituary. In it, she left her children with this wisdom: May you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they