We Need To Alert Women Everywhere About

In Many Developing Countries, Girls Don't Go To School. They Stay Home. They Are At The Water Wells, Bringing Water Back And Forth To The Village. Or They Are Doing Chores, Preparing Meals, Farming. Some Cultures Think Girls And Women Shouldn't Be Educated, And Those Are Very Often The Places Where The Treatment Of Women And Girls Is The Worst.

We See All Around The World Where Women's Rights Are Denied, Where Governments Don't Believe In Educating Their Girls. There Are 800 Million People In The World Who Are Illiterate And 75 Percent Of Them Are Women And Girls.

Books Are Important. They Help You Sleep At Night.

The English Language Lacks The Words 'to Mourn An Absence.' For The Loss Of A Parent, Grandparent, Spouse, Child Or Friend We Have All Manner Of Words And Phrases, Some Helpful, Some Not. Still, We Are Conditioned To Say Something, Even If It Is Only 'i Am Sorry For Your Loss.' But For An Absence, For Someone Who Was Never There At All, We Are Wordless To Capture That Particular Emptiness. For Those Who Deeply Want Children And Are Denied Them, Those Missing Babies Hover Like Silent, Ephemeral Shadows Over Their Lives. Who Can Describe The Feel Of A Tiny Hand That Is Never Held?

Well, We've Faced Very Difficult Decisions And Challenges In Our Country, Every One Of Us Have, As We - Since September 11th, As We Fought The War On Terror, All Of Those Decisions That The President Had To Make To Put Young Men And Women In Harm's Way.