The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Nov. 17. She discussed the recent release of her memoir, a recent uptick in violence against Asian Americans and her experience during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. She also brought to the discussion her story as one of the first women to fly combat missions while serving in the Iraq war, her experience co-founding the Senate's first environmental justice caucus and her status as the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office.
She began by telling the audience what motivated her to write her new book.
"The book is really a letter to my daughters," Duckworth said. "I'm just writing letters to my daughters explaining why America's worth the sacrifice."
Duckworth lives the effects of the sacrifice everyday. She served 23 years in the military and she lost both legs when her helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.
"I started writing little paragraphs in my notes apps on my phone trying to explain to my daughter why it was worth it to go lose my legs [in combat]," Duckworth said. "As we were sitting around waiting for something, [my chief of staff] took [my phone] from me and said, 'This is a book.'"
At the lecture, Duckworth also touched on her reflections on race, having grown up as the daughter of a Thai mother and a white American father. She also discussed the intersections of the Black Lives Matter and the Stop Asian Hate movements.
In one episode, Duckworth recalled being proud yet nervous for her staffers — many of whom were young Black Americans — who wanted to be involved in the Black Lives Matter protests of last summer.
“I literally told them, ‘You better write my name and my phone number on your arm in Sharpie so that if you get knocked unconscious, they know who to call,’” Duckworth said.
She expanded on how the experience taught her more about being an ally to those who are marginalized.
"My young staffers really taught me a lot about the pain that they were going through,” Duckworth said.
Duckworth described the rise in violence against Asian Americans as “the same story all over again," but she also delineated the ways she has been proactive about combating the new wave of antagonism against Asians in the U.S.
"My mom was going to the grocery store to buy ripe fruit ... and she was being hassled by grocery store clerks and people in the store for being Asian," Duckworth said. "I did the only thing that I could, which was to speak out and push really hard with legislation ... I'm really proud that we got [legislation] passed and really pushed our administration hard to have a true accounting of the instances of hate crimes against Asian Americans."
Duckworth was also outspoken about the lack of Asian Americans in President Joe Biden’s cabinet and the discourse of racial representation.
“I’m so tired of anything like, ‘Oh, that’s the diversity piece. Okay, we’ll find a Black person. Oh, you’re Asian … now, check, we’ve got an Asian in that,’" Duckworth said. "It’s not about the diversity slice. It’s about everybody having a slice of pie.”
Duckworth then turned to sharing her motivation for joining the military.
“I wanted to join the foreign service," Duckworth said. "I wanted to go work at an embassy stamping passports … [but] so many of my friends just happened to be military men and women, and they said, 'Why don't you go to basic training to learn about the military? If you want to represent America, in our embassies, you should at least understand the difference between a platoon and a brigade.'”
After a successful military career that ended when she lost her legs and was unable to ever fly a plane again, Duckworth turned to a new life of service and announced her candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Duckworth explained that she felt motivated by having the ability to improve the quality of medical care for veterans, and she received encouragement from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin to run.
“I joked that I was medicated when he asked me, because I was still in the hospital, but that’s when I decided, ‘Okay, this is my new mission,’" Duckworth said. "So I became a veterans’ advocate.”
Duckworth also touched on her experience as a lawmaker during the Jan. 6 insurrection, particularly emphasizing how she felt seeing former members of the military among the insurrectionists.
“Betrayal. That’s the word that comes to mind, betrayal ... I gave a first speech that night, and I was so furious that Americans would threaten our constitutional democracy and that law enforcement officers or military men and women were part of that effort," Duckworth said. "After I gave that first speech and sat down, a text message popped up on my personal cell phone that was a threat against me and my family, and I just remember thinking, 'Oh, I'm not quitting now. I'm not quitting.'"
