Another Republican state turns Democrat on its Nov. 5th election date! How well I remember the plucky women who saw their rights being stripped, one by one, too often by the men who controlled both houses of their state legislature. It was as though each of these women began wondering, ‘who is looking out for my interests, my rights?’. The questions they seemed to be asking were: how can I be expected to control my own life if stripped of birth control as my right to determine? No such demands were made on men’s reproduction organs. Why should only men have control of their bodies, have privileged access to affordable education, get more pay than women for the same position?
Why, indeed, they seemed to be wondering, do we continue voting for those who would limit our dreams? our ambitions?
As I recall, some of these women, who had never run for public office of any kind, began to gather together and wonder, “what keeps us from running for an office?” It was as though a small number of them began to challenge one another to just run for ANY office — even dog catcher — to get started. Serve on some community board. Help another woman enter an election. It was like the beginning of a Me Too movement for these women saying, “Know my place? I don’t think so!”
From time to time I’d read an article about this group supporting one another — even a husband or two taking care of the kids so their wives could learn the skills of campaigning. And then I forgot about them until….
I read the election results of last Tuesday’s election! The ‘Blue Wave’ hit the state of Virginia! I immediately thought of those “Me Too” women and wondered how much their efforts contributed to the amazing state victory. Perhaps Rachel will have another story to share with us about those plucky Virginia women.
Will we hear more stories about women who want nothing more than ‘to control their own bodies? Have a dream or two of their own? Only yesterday, TV news showed a woman in Virginia giving a Trump motorcade her middle finger as she passed them on her bike!
Stay tuned.