Coleen's Blog - Archived Entry

I saw Ani Difranco deliver this line at her performance in Seattle this week. Her musical genius is electrified by her ability to both express and embody radical ideals. I'm so stultified by the messages projected by the US corporate media that I've grown careful of what I consume. I try my best to be aware of the messages I am receiving, from whom they come and what responses they intend to elicit. How refreshing it is to hear a wild and successful woman reaffirm values that contradict the ever-encroaching fundamentalism I witness every day. Feminists have long-noted and documented the right-wing backlash that took root in the 80's, blanketed the land in the 90's and is now, in the new millennium, choking the hope of revolutionary change. Feminists’ good name was one of the first targets of the new right’s smear campaigns. The continued efforts of name-calling conservatives grew to taint even widely accepted words like liberal.

Exploitation and poverty now extend among the populace with a growing universality. Soothsayers like DiFranco, who for 15 years has had the courage to critique the elite, are now messengers of a hope our country once had. Our country was born of revolution; our forbearers broke from the established power with a better idea. The white male slave owners who created the Declaration of Independence did not include my gender in “we, the people.” Women have been able to vote 84 years out of this country’s 228 years of existence. What our country really needs is to fuse the passion for liberty American patriots demonstrated with the leadership of women. After typing this sentence, I searched the Internet for documentation of Abigail Adam’s petition to John Adams, her husband, to include women’s voting rights in the Constitution. The first quote of hers I found spoke of “passion for Liberty.” I see now that 228 years ago this fusion existed and continues today. In March 1776, Abigail wrote to John in Philadelphia: "Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice or Representation." Like Ani, Abigail was a woman of courage and clairvoyant good sense.

John didn’t listen and generations of feminists have stepped up to carry out her promise. We, the women-people, broke the laws in order to vote, to have autonomy of our bodies, to live independently. Many of us over the centuries have noticed that the laws in this democratic land do not work for us, have demanded change and won. Sadly, many of the in-roads feminists have made into our current patriarchal system have not changed it. 99% of all American women will work in their lifetime, but capitalism is as virulent as ever. Women earn 73 cents of every man’s dollar and cannot, as a class, amass enough resources to challenge male dominance in the domestic sphere. Suffragists fought for 73 years to win the vote and 84 years later, we are still choosing between two white men whose interest in women ranges from a targeted voting bloc to a cheap labor source. The main item on Bush's domestic agenda is the marriage movement. Why? Because, like Hitler, who’s Nazi slogan 'Kinder, Kirche, Kueche' (Children, Church, Kitchen) was an important cornerstone of his fascist regime, Bush recognizes that our imperialist economic system cannot meet sustenance needs. If women did not perform household duties, raise children and care for men and their institutions for free, the system would collapse.

Bush is helping to unite progressives across race, class and creed. We can not, however, limit our goal to integration. A female US president would be great but look at Margaret Thatcher. Look at the army of conservative women who have taken advantage of feminist strides and entered the political realm as obedient tokens, serving misogynist agendas. Women are just as likely as men to be co-opted by corrupt systems. I propose we honor and give thanks for those radicals who have risked/risk much to ignite movements toward peace, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. A radical movement in the US is not dead. Perhaps 20-years of assaults by the new right has dampened its flame, but the embers are red hot and need only to be ignited with the breath of passionate folks willing to challenge the status quo. Give a shout out to your local feminists. In fact, why don’t all

all decent men and women
call themselves feminists?
out of respect
for those who fought for this
i mean, look around
we have this

“This” is our chance at fully realizing an egalitarian society. The momentum that carries Bush out of office must continue beyond the flatland of the 2-party system. Do we want to play it safe and stagger along toward Armageddon with bible thumping oil execs? Or do we want to make radical break with tradition and listen to women-centered women for a change?