Sikh author of See No Stranger, laying flowers
at the feet of ICE agents in Los Angeles,
pleading for soft hearts in treating those
they are so brutally apprehending.
Recently I watched a documentary titled Dear Ms: A Revolution in Print. It took me back to those heady days in the early 1970's, when women were waking up - and shaking up the establishment (and their husbands!) I didn't realize I was political in those days, but I did know that I had zero rights, and was treated as domestic staff by my then husband.
Ms Magazine was my awakening. A lot was changing in those years. I look back at my long life, remembering so many movements: the civil rights movement, the anti-nuclear movement, the hippie movement, the Viet Nam protests, the women's liberation movement. Before all of them, the women suffragettes, who suffered to get us the vote.
We came so far it is unbelievable to me now that women's rights in the USA are being rolled back to 1950. New regulations and restrictions will cause much suffering for women and girls in the years ahead. And how long will it take, after this administration, to regain and restore all that has been lost? (Not just to women, but to immigrant families who are being ripped apart. No way to fix that much suffering.)
We are living through troubled and troubling times. Looking back, beyond my own lifetime, I ponder that one thing women have always done is endure. Slavery, oppression, societal constraints, unequal rights, somehow women get their families through. We're strong. We don't just survive, we rise! Women fleeing from abuse, women trying to keep their children alive in war-torn countries, single mothers raising their kids without money or help, other than from mothers and grandmothers, that army of women that pitched in to help raise kids whose fathers walked away.
Our ancestors were some tough cookies.
Two famous writings come to mind: "And Still I Rise" the poem by Maya Angelou and the speech "Ain't I a Woman" by Sojourner Truth.
This week, let's ponder womanhood, womens' rights, our "herstory". You might write about how the women's movement in the 70's impacted your life, or how the loss of womens' rights today is affecting your peace of mind and your family.
Alternatively, you might choose to write about a woman whose spirit you admire, either a well known figure who fought for womens' rights, or a woman closer to home. I look forward to reading your responses.
We welcome discussion in the comment section, (we hope to hear from the gentlemen, too), and remind you to visit other linkers, in the spirit of community. Some inspiration:
WOMEN
by Alice Walker
They were women then
My mama's generation
Husky of voice--stout of
Step
With fists as well as
Hands
How they battered down
Doors
And ironed
Starched white
Shirts
How they led
Armies
Headragged generals
Across mined
Fields
Booby-trapped
Ditches
To discover books
Desks
A place for us
How they knew what
we
Must know
Without knowing a page
Of it
Themselves.
