for helping a woman get an abortion. I travelled from Indiana to New York with a woman who had a life threatening pregnancy. We continued to do our outreach and help other women.
45 years ago, I ran a woman’s consciousness raising group where we talked about the rights of women to use contraception. We talked about the right of a woman to ask for her husband to help with work around the home. We talked about the right of a woman to be free from fear of violence in the home.
47 years ago, I and other VISTAs had to move out of our home in a small southern town in the middle of the night because we had encouraged voter registration in an African American community and had our black supervisor to our home for dinner. Fortunately, the home was owned by the sheriff. When he heard the plans to burn down the house and shoot us before we got to our cars, he acted quickly to get us out. We moved a ways away, but kept doing our work.
43 years ago, I went to my first gay pride conference. It was amazing to see all the LGBTQ community in a safe place, rejoicing in who they were. I continued to lead a group for LGBTQ students where we talked about the fear of being out to friends and family and the legal issues of being gay.
46 years ago, i organized VISTA volunteers to approach their Senators and Representatives and other government officials to protest cuts in the poverty program. We used the threat of unionization to get them to listen.
43 years ago, I experienced the power of mothers in the welfare rights movement who taught me how to speak out for what was right.
36 years ago, my husband and I struggled to get a mortgage,even though I had a high paying job because a woman’s salary couldn’t be considered at the same level as a man’s
I was privileged to live in a time where there was ferment, fear, and hope all mixed together. Nixon was in the White House for most of this time. Friends were being sent to possible death in Viet Nam and we gathered around the television every night, seeing the horrors that happened there. John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King had been assassinated, cities burned in riots, and students shot at protests. In the face of all of this, we felt amazingly strong. We were standing for important issues, working with individuals who needed change, and feeling a deep sense of kinship with those who joined us in the struggle.
And we moved forward. Abortion became legal. LGBTQ individuals came out in the open. They married. It became wrong to suppress the vote and the federal government had the power to monitor elections where that might happen. Women were able to have control over their bodies through the use of contraception. They expected their partners to join them in caring for their home and were able to work and to expect equal treatment, even if it didn’t always happen.
This took immense work from millions of men and women throughout our nation. And tonight, I fear that we may lose much of what we fought for for the last many years. I weep not only for the future we may lose, but the present we worked so hard to earn.
But I also remember that people working together for a powerful purpose achieved the gains we have today. And I know that I and many others will never stop. We may have been set back last night. We may be tired and discouraged. But, as through all of these years, we can look around and see people who are standing with us, trying to make all of our lives better. We can value and respect our fellow Americans. We can expand our sense of community so that when one person betters their life, we rejoice and feel that our life is better as well. We can continue to learn how to be strong, humble, empathic and powerful. We will survive!
But tonight I weep.