I'm old.
I'm so old that, when I grew up, school teachers explained to roomsfull of children that women could never lead the country because they were too unstable, had periods, couldn't handle the pressure. I'm so old that, out on the playground of St. John the Baptist, boys, with fewer brains and smaller balls than I had, teased me on the playground about that, and relied upon the strength of what Sister said to bolster their arguments. What could I say in return? I'm smarter than you and, deep inside, I simply believe that you're wrong? I think that I'm better suited to lead than you are, the words of all the authority figures in our lives notwithstanding? Yeah, right. That works on 12 year olds. No, it doesn't. I just had to dig my nails deep into the side of the cliff and hope, against hope, that time was on my side. That didn't keep me very warm at night.
I graduated Order of the Coif from law school, single-motherhood intact, went to a white-shoe law firm, won billion dollar cases -- and they didn't -- but it wasn't truly until this afternoon that, merci maroon-suited grandma Pelosi, that I felt truly vindicated. I've been half grinning like an idiot and half sobbing like a baby all day long.
Thank you, Ms. Pelosi. It was always going to be someone, but it turned out to be you and, thank you. Thank you for being there, for being the one, for being, when the time came, a grandmother just as I am. It's been such a long slog from the late 1950s to here. Young women have no idea -- no idea -- what's it's cost some of us some from that time. We paid, and paid gladly. We'd pay all over again.
But, damn. Just, damn. They voted in a woman as Speaker of the House, third in line, today, and damn. Just damn. Every protest that I ever went to. Every meeting where I refused to be the one to take notes. Every LttE that I ever wrote. Every time I raised my hand to answer in class (which was a political act, all through the late 80s, believe me). Every man that I ever told, no, thank you, I'm not interested, even if you do have a job/promotion to offer. Every night that I went without sleep wondering if Shirley Chisholm, Robin Morgan, bell hookes, and Pat Schroeder were really going to pull it off. I'll gladly sign off on all of them, declare them little enough to pay, for the joy of today.
Nancy Pelosi! May the Goddess guard you! Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, please guard Nancy; she's your daughter. Air, Fire, Water, and Earth, to her better self, now give birth. Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, make her brutally fair. Water, Earth, Air, and Fire, grant to Nancy her heart's desire. Mother Hera, at the Center, stand by your child and give her mentor.
9 comments:
Yes, Hecate. This is a dear, dear moment. She made it, she got through. She's the one. I couldn't have envisioned anyone better than our Nancy-Grandmother, to be where she is. Let them get the picture, however slowly it comes to them, that things are different, boys--The women are here in town!!
Amen and amen
SSoP
I'm with you Hecate. I had an art professor (that I respected very much) ask me, "Why do you work so hard? You'll just get married and be a wife and have kids." The year was 1971. Well, I was a young thing then and I remember being kind of shocked, but not enough to ask him to recommend me for a masters program.
I've done okay since then, but I'll never forget that day in his office hearing those words.
mer,
That's what I'm talking about. Unless you lived through that, it's impossible to imagine. But here we are and there Nancy is, and well, just damn.
Excellent and moving post on an excellent and moving day. Well done. All best to our new Speaker and all best to you, Hecate!
It was 1968 when my former husband & I were denied a mortgage on what was to be our first home. The reason -- my income didn't count due to the "likelihood" I'd soon be pregnant! So I too have been experiencing the same range of emotions you describe in your post.
Having had the opportunity to watch the final hour of Ford's funeral on Wednesday, I'm struck by the contrast of that convergance of the three components of the Patriarchy (government, military & church) with the image of Nancy surrounded by all of the children after her swearing in.
When the seven cannons fired off their 21 gun salute to Ford as a squadron of jet fighters flew overhead, I wondered what such a funeral would look like if women ran the world. It's up to women everywhere now to join ranks behind Nancy Palosi so we can know. May it be so.
Sitting in the front row of my engineering classes in the late 70s, in halter tops and shorts, kicking their asses in grades, taking all those insults from my profs and answering every question they threw at me, acing their tests.
Heh. Those were the days. It's good to see Speaker Pelosi take the gavel.
well said, Hecate. and thanks to all smart, brave women that have swallowed the insults and derogatory comments not to mention the veiled and not so veiled threats they've had to endure so that younger women would have it easier. let's hope that someday, it won't be a struggle at all. let's hope that someday, women will be prized for the goddesses they are.
--her eyes
Her statement today coming out against the war is beautiful. Not as strong as I would have it ("Out NOW!!!"), but welcome. And now can we please impeach the prez and veep so she can become president?
More goddess power. That's exactly what the culture needs.
To all the woman who fought the war and those still fighting Maybe we need a moment in silence to all the comrades lost along the way the MIA's,POW's. and the casualties. Goddess bless them all to the fight for Human rights and the acknowledgement a woman is a person above everything else and endowed with inaleinated rights.
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