Getting Active

Just a quick post today since I am swamped with grading. 

If you're as concerned about the decisions being made at 1600 Pennsylvania as I am, here are a couple websites to help you do something about it:

http://thesixtyfive.org/weeklyCTA


https://whitehouseinc.org/

They can only ignore us for so long!

Starting Now...

I said in my post earlier today that it's time to become active members of this movement.  Our first opportunity arose as I was writing that post.  This morning, President Trump* issued an executive order reinstating the "Global Gag Rule".  What this means is that if any non-governmental organization wants to receive US funding to provide reproductive services to women around the globe, they must not mention, counsel, offer, or in any way have anything to do with abortion.  By depriving these organizations of US aid, we are potentially depriving the poorest of this globe's women from birth control, pregnancy services, reproductive health checks, and more.  Surely we all see the catastrophic global implications of such a move.

There is, however, a slim ray of hope.  Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) has announced her intention to introduce legislation tomorrow repealing the global gag rule.  Obviously, this will be an uphill battle.  Senate Republicans are sure to stand in opposition to Shaheen, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.  Contact your Senators, friends, and let them know that you want them to stand with Jeanne Shaheen and the women of this world.  All it takes is a phone call, postcard, email, anything to let your voice be heard.  And if your senator votes against it?  Make note of it and get ready to campaign against them in 2018 or 2020 or 2022......

Here's a link to the press release from Senator Shaheen's office:
https://www.shaheen.senate.gov/news/press/shaheen-statement-on-president-trumps-reinstatement-of-the-global-gag-rule

* A note on my use of President Trump.  While I appreciate the sentiment of many who embrace the "Not My President" credo, I do not share the sentiment.  At my core, I believe in our democracy and I believe in our constitution, and unfortunately, he was elected and sworn into office following the rules outlined in our constitution.  I do support considering a change to our electoral system and ending the electoral college scheme, but until that happens, the sad truth is that he was elected and IS our president and I will address him as such ... even if I throw up in my mouth a little bit every time I do it.

It's Who We Are

  I didn't march on Saturday.  Don't worry; this isn't one of those anti-march screeds.  I didn't march because I had to work not because I opposed the march.  Had I not been responsible for taking my speech team to compete, I would have joined my local march with pride and vigor.  Instead of marching, I followed my friends on Facebook.  Women (and men) from all areas of my life were marching on Saturday -- childhood friends, college friends, colleagues, people I've befriended in my adult life, past and present students.  A lot of tears fell down my cheeks as I read their personal accounts, saw pictures of streets flooded with marchers, listened to speeches from the dais.  Saturday was a day that I suspect we'll look back on in years to come as the moment when women changed the narrative.  At least, that's my hope.

Of course, as I was reading these first-hand accounts and looking at these pictures, the naysayers were already in action.  There were those calling the marchers whiners.  There were those claiming that American women don't really have cause to march when women around the world suffer far worse injustices than those the American women were calling attention to.  There were others questioning whether marching really accomplishes anything.  I fought the urge to engage these posts, recognizing that many were posting just to "stir the pot" as they call it and not wanting to help them in their cause.  (This urge we have online to post incendiary comments just for the sake of creating arguments is something I don't understand, but that's another post for another day.)  All weekend, I've chewed on this argument, wanting to say something but not wanting to wade through the "get over it" posts or the arguments from the pot stirrers.  So I decided to launch this blog and let it become my home for commentary and observation as we weather the storms ahead.  I figure it'll only be read by maybe five people, but it will be a necessary, cathartic outlet in the face of a contentious social media climate. 

That brings me back to Saturday and the anti-march posts.  So let's address the three big arguments one at a time.

1.  The marchers were whiners/sore losers 
Yes, many of the people who marched on Saturday voted for Hillary Clinton and are disappointed that she lost.  Many of the people who marched on Saturday are greatly opposed to Donald Trump and what he seems to stand for.  Saturday's march, though, wasn't about Hillary.  It wasn't a protest about the election. Did this march spring from the election?  Yes, it did.  But the march wasn't about protesting the election so much as it was a call to action.  When many parts of this country woke up on November 9, 2016, we realized that we had lost a voice in our government.  We now had a president-elect who bragged about assaulting women, a Congress that was now empowered to overturn legislation that had granted us access to healthcare, marriage rights, and much more; and the potential for a Supreme Court that would not be the check we had grown to rely on it being.  We grew kind of complacent for eight years because we knew we had someone in the Oval Office who had our back.  Now, that someone in the Oval Office would only be checking out our backs rather than protecting them.  So Saturday served two purposes on that front:  it was a way to send a message to our leaders that our days of complacency were over and that we would not be ignored or legislated out of rights AND it was a rallying call to each other to get active.  Our leaders saw millions of women around the nation and around the world calling attention to the rights of the disenfranchised.  Women and little girls saw the power of our voice.  Saturday was about inspiring change not undoing the past.

2.  American women have nothing to complain about when women in other parts of the world have it so much worse.  Okay, first of all, there is not a day that goes by that I don't realize how comparatively lucky I am that I was born a white, middle class, American woman.  I have not had to endure anything remotely like what women in Saudi Arabia endure or what my Black sisters have endured or my Latina sisters or LGBT siblings.  I get that.  But I also know that there are blocks in my path that aren't in the paths of my brothers.  I know that defunding Planned Parenthood will make it harder for women to get access to basic gynecological care that they otherwise couldn't afford.  I know that dialing back Title IX will make it harder for my female students to find justice should they be raped.  I know how common rape is on college campuses.  I know when I bought my house that I was identified as an "unmarried woman" on every loan document and that this identification likely made it harder for me to secure that loan.  I know that women make less, struggle more, and generally have to fight harder than many men do.  Just because we have it easier than other women around the world doesn't mean we shouldn't fight for equality.   Civil rights isn't a contest of who has it better or worse; it's making sure that there IS no better or worse. 

3.  Marches/protests don't actually accomplish anything.  Protest is a vital part of the American DNA.  It's why we are who we are.  Colonists came here as a way to protest unfair treatment in England.  We fought a revolution to protest treatment by the crown.  Throughout history, protest has spurred social change.  Protest is why we don't have slavery, why women can vote, why segregation is illegal, why wars have ended.  The problem is that sometimes, what we accomplish through protest isn't immediately evident.  We didn't wake up Sunday automatically making $1 for every $1 a man earns.  But we've started a conversation.  We've enlightened some people.  We've sent a message.  We've activated.  Now the real work  begins.  The problem with marches and protests is that BY THEMSELVES, yes, they don't necessarily accomplish anything.  Martin Luther King, Jr didn't march on Selma and then go home and put his feet up.  He kept speaking and writing and engaging and shedding light on civil rights injustices.  Saturday was the beginning of the story.  Now, those millions of women who marched need to take that passion and act.  That's where things get tricky.  It's easy to make a sign and march.  It's sometimes harder to act.  This is where I DO worry about Saturday because what is missing, as far as I can see, is leadership.  The colonial revolutionaries had leadership.  The abolitionists and suffragettes and civil rights activists and anti-war protesters had leadership.  There were faces for the movement who were out there on the front lines urging action, demanding response, and mobilizing a base.  Who were our leaders on Saturday?  Is it Hillary?  The female members of  Congress?  America Ferrera?  Ashley Judd?  Where is this generation's Susan B. Anthony?  Until that leadership emerges, it is up to those who marched (and those who supported them) to become their own leaders.  How do we do that?  We keep talking, keep posting, keep protesting.  Make your representatives sick of you because you keep contacting them to urge their vote on important issues.  If you can, give money to organizations that will help the fight.  Get involved at the grass roots level by supporting local candidates or hosting forums.  Keep the passion going and keep acting on it. 

Saturday was a powerful day in American history.  It sent a message that the status quo is in for a jolt and that women will not go silently into the Trump administration.  Yes, he's our president, but we reminded him on Saturday that we are watching and that his job is to govern all of us, not just the minority who voted for him.