Skip to main content

Fight On Like Our Foremothers and Forefathers

women's march chicago


The Women's March was a tremendous day of protest and solidarity, and a worldwide announcement that we will not quietly accede to this unprecedented situation. But it's over. And I'm left with this feeling. You're probably left with this feeling. We're all left with this feeling, and it is just so scary and it makes me want to lie down and not get up.

I've been thinking about what to do and how to make this a livable situation, and the answer I've found is, as always, in the past.


Do you know why movies aren't made about the 19th century women's movement? Or the anti-slavery efforts in 18th century America? There's no triumphant ending. Elizabeth Cady Stanton never voted. Neither did Susan B. Anthony. Or Sojourner Truth. Most abolitionists who labored from 1785 through the early 1800s only saw increased division and rancor in their lifetime concerning the topic dearest to them, something as huge as the recognition of an entire race's humanity (sound familiar?).


all lives matter is some bullshit


Was these people's work in vain? Was it hopeless? Should they have stopped when they were jeered at? Mocked? When those in power refused to listen to them? When they realized that their goals would probably not be witnessed in their own lifetimes? It must have been so hard. We know it must have been so hard, because we're feeling some of what they must have felt.


No matter if we see tangible results, the work we do is important. Keeping up a voice of dissent in the face of wrong is important. It IS very scary now and it is hard, but what you can see when reading about social justice heroes of the past is that while they might have been noticed because they were the leaders, they would not have been able to accomplish what they did without people fighting with them. Hundreds of thousands of people, having jobs, having families, having other commitments, but who also worked for causes they believed in and who fought against the voices in power that said it would never happen and they were wasting their time.



abolitionists


These people toppled the monarchy in France, ended slavery, transformed women's rights, and were behind every major social change in history because those with power do not surrender it voluntarily. As Ralph Waldo Emerson points out, the state of the world is all created out of a series of thoughts. Someone had a thought to march on Washington, and there were people and signs and banners and buses and over 700 solidarity marches worldwide with millions of people, all because of one thought.

To quote another's thought: if we carry on with the little bits of work we can do, writing, calling, marching, and talking, this nation "shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."




Fight on.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy