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Your view: Trump tax cut will help all Americans

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Trucksville home destroyed by fire

<p>Two things kept me from completely losing my mind during my first maternity leave: crossword puzzles and Oprah. </p><p>Sometimes it took me an entire week to complete one puzzle &#8212; a Monday one at that. But if I could fill those squares, I figured, my brain wouldn&#8217;t be oatmeal by the time I was ready to re-enter the world of humans who showered and returned emails in a timely fashion.</p><p>Oprah? Well, I couldn&#8217;t explain at the time what she was providing me, but I knew I needed it to survive. Connection, I know now, when I felt disconnected from everyone and everything I knew. Empathy when I felt lost, lonely and inept. Stories when I needed to tap my own empathy reserves. Humanity when I wasn&#8217;t interacting much with actual humans, outside the tiny one who baffled me even as she captured my whole heart.</p><p>I have loved Oprah since college &#8212; another chapter when I felt lost, lonely and inept. I loved her during my first job at a newspaper in Indiana, when I worked nights and her show aired, blessedly, mid-day. I loved her when I had meningitis and suddenly found myself watching day-time TV again &#8212; first in a hospital, then recovering at home.</p><p>She taught and touched me during every formative, terrifying period of my life.</p><p>Millions, I know, have similar affection for her.</p><p>&#8220;She is unbelievable over and over,&#8221; my friend Judy wrote. &#8220;I was inspired by her to write a book about my experience with childhood sexual abuse and dedicated it to her and she&#8217;ll never know.&#8221;</p><p>We were talking about her speech &#8212; the greatest I&#8217;ve seen at an awards show.</p><p>&#8220;What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have,&#8221; she said, accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.</p><p>She told the story of Recy Taylor, an African-American woman brutally raped and left blindfolded by six white men as she walked home from church in 1944. Taylor died at the end of December at 97.</p><p>&#8220;And I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth &#8212; like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years, and even now tormented &#8212; goes marching on,&#8221; Oprah said.</p><p>&#8220;Oprah for president,&#8221; I half-joked on Facebook. I wasn&#8217;t alone. Countless &#8220;Oprah in 2020&#8221; tweets and posts took off before the applause had even ended. Backstage, a reporter asked Stedman Graham, Oprah&#8217;s partner, whether she&#8217;d run. &#8220;It&#8217;s up to the people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She would absolutely do it.&#8221;</p><p>We &#8212; I &#8212; want her to lift us up and save our souls and restore a sense of dignity and heart that seems altogether missing from our nation&#8217;s capital, our collective body&#8217;s nerve center.</p><p>But, in all honesty, I hope she doesn&#8217;t run. I think she deserves better than what Washington&#8217;s serving these days, and I think her gifts would be squandered and squashed in politics.</p><p>Instead, I hope her speech does what her words have been doing for decades: inspire us to action. On her talk show, in her magazine, on her network, in her art, Oprah has always provided a blueprint. Be better, she nudges us, and here&#8217;s how.</p><p>Oh, and I&#8217;m doing it with you.</p><p>And we&#8217;d listen. She got the masses to read Cormac McCarthy, for Pete&#8217;s sake.</p><p>Her Golden Globes speech is being compared to a stump speech, but I prefer to see it as a call to arms.</p><p>&#8220;I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon!&#8221; Oprah announced.</p><p>It&#8217;s on us to coax it into being. It&#8217;s on us to seek out, mentor, make space for, hire, celebrate those girls she mentioned.</p><p>It&#8217;s on us to remember that Oprah is shaped, but not defined, by an incredibly difficult childhood. It&#8217;s on us to remember that greatness and art and stories and brilliance live inside girls and boys, young women and young men everywhere. It&#8217;s on to find them. And listen. And act.</p><p>It&#8217;s on us to revive this nation&#8217;s heart.</p><p>Maybe we&#8217;re in another formative, terrifying period. Maybe Oprah can help us through it. But the hard work shouldn&#8217;t lay at her feet. It should lay at ours.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Heidi Stevens</p><p>Guest Columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Heidi Stevens is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Oprah for president? I have a better idea