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Meg

Thanks. Your column "Ferraro's Debt to the Noisy Ones" was a catalyst that helped crtstallize [[crystallize]] my own response to the events of the last month.

Maybe not surprisingly, my reaction to Ferraro's candidacy is very similar to the reactions of thousands of women to my Space Shuttle launch. For the last year I've witnessed (with some surprise) the exuberant, [[strikethrough]] sometimes [[strikethrough]] almost fervent, response that [[strikethrough]] mention of [[strikethrough]] my space flight evokes. [[strikethrough]] [[illegible]] [[strikethrough]] Many women felt a personal stake in that launch, & they share that experience with me, [[?]] [[?]] elation - with me. [[strikethrough]] [[illegible sentence]] [[strikethrough]]. Until recently, I had difficulty understanding the intensity of the response - I suppose I was too close to the event to consider any "larger implications". After the flight I was exuberant (to say the least), but the source of my exuberance was personal, not sociological.

Now I'm experiencing the same excitement I've been seeing in other women - a different [[strikethrough]] [[illegible sentence]] [[strikethrough]] I feel that I have a stake in someone else's success. What's the source of this excitement?
Apparently, each awkward moment in mostly-male meetings, each insensitive remark by a curious reporter, left a [[strikethrough]] small [[strikethrough]] its imprint [[strikethrough]]as[[strikethrough]] before it rolled of my back. [[Insert location unspecified]] The result Now it does my heart good to see someone (public recognition vindication/pride [[Insert location unspecified]] These have apparently formed [[strikethrough]] a deep impression [[strikethrough]] over the last few years... and the result is excitement at successes of others who have similar experiences - It's as important to express this excitement and pride as it is to understand it. 

Many pages of this letter ended up in a trashcan, not an envelope - those were the pages that I really needed to

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write. Thanks for the opportunity to purge some long pent-up emotions.