The post below comes to me from my Sister, who has worked on a volunteer basis for the Obama Campaign in New Hampshire and Ohio. This was written by a friend of hers, and embodies the feelings, conflict, and, ultimately, resolution for many women in New Hampshire and beyond. I post it here for your consideration without further comment......
A Letter to My Older Sister
A letter to my older sisters
This letter is both a cautionary tale
and expression of gratitude
for those women of the prior generation
who won hard fought battles
for the equality of my sex.
I fully understand and appreciate
just what they have done
for me personally.
I am 46 years old.
As a child in 1972 I used my allowance
to subscribe to Ms. Magazine,
to cheer on the strides we were making,
to be informed of what I needed to know
about the movement.
I remember
that women at one point had no vote, no say,
little respect,
that until the 1970's
rape was still legal in France,
that an American woman,
still under English Common Law,
could not have credit in her own name.
My mother lived it
after getting her divorce.
I have both witnessed and studied
"inequality"
And I, as a strong woman,
a feminist,
have personally
been labeled every derogatory term
you can think of.
I also know that
Now, in this country, more women of every race
attend college then their male counterparts.
That it appears we are actually
better at some things then men are.
I know that there will always be more battles to fight,
men's only high power circles to invade,
wrongs to be righted -
I know how hard it has been.
But,
I just have to mention
we are now just as likely to hear
a woman making a sexist comment about a man
as the other way around.
That now
we don't need a female President
just to prove a point or to win a hard fought prize
particularly in the way that Hilary suggests i.e.,
"I will do whatever it takes to win." -
Now I am,
thanks to you,
free to be an equal member of humanity first and a woman as well,
and that, actually,
this allows me more compassion towards every living
thing on the planet, man, woman, beast, nature alike.
Now I have the freedom to not act like a man to compete -
this is all because the work you have done.
I am grateful and I thank you .
Here's the thing,
please, I ask you all,
my older sisters, you know who you are,
to lay down your weary rage now -
because its is out of tune,
out of step with most of the rest of us.
Not just women
but the entire planet
needs you to represent fairly
and perhaps, we can still be
ground breakers
but this time in healing,
in rebuilding and creating together.
We are all tired of war
and desperately need peace.
I am compelled to write this letter
after listening on the radio
to Geraldine Ferraro on NPR
who sounded like a harpy
even to my educated, somewhat militant
self .
She, not letting anyone get in a word edgewise,
verbally bombasted and belittled
any one
having the audacity to have a different opinion
or mention
what being a feminist to them
meant,
what we as free women and as a nation,
might be looking for -
that her candidate and she herself have now demonstrated
that they are part of
the establishment that we see as being divisive,
partisan and destructive - that, perhaps,
what we were reaching for in a President
was not a warrior first and foremost
but a well balanced leader
with clear judgment
guiding us
towards new possibilities
and a different future
one with consensus,
not a continued campaign for achievement,
not more of the same.
In the heat of her argument she clearly demonstrated
great experience in needing to win
at all costs
but truly missed the point.
I hope she will listen to a recording of the program
at a later date
be able to hear herself
outside her armor
and understand how offensive
she came off.
How she left no room for conversation,
understanding, or mutual dialog,
but rather spent the time barking
her dogmatic views -
raging at us from on high with
her hard-line, we have fought, therefore deserve,
and will stop at nothing to obtain our prize diatribe,
thereby presenting a living an example of equality
by being part of the problem in the same way as "the men."
I suspect pity was not what she was looking for
but that was my initial response.
Like others whom I have come across
dazed and dirty
sitting on street corners
I related to her as a scared veteran
of too many campaigns
an old war horse
who can't get beyond her soldier at the ready habit
and in touch with her own feminine -
the saddest loss truly
is to fight for something
while losing your ability to be that
which you have as cause
I have now seen how
beating down inequality with a stick
will get you too this place.
Thank you Geraldine.
What I am writing you to mention is this -
at some point
the war needs to be over,
not because we have won or lost,
but because a true sign of progress
is when we stop fighting
and come to the table to negotiate
to find peace and common ground
as humans.
We know what you have done
in such a short time how far we have come
The greatest gift you can give us now
is to lay down your arms
join us at the table
in rebuilding our nation
and trust
in us your younger sisters.
Now that we are capable and free
we will not forget.
"It really is a revolution," ...."We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those
earned; we are really talking about humanism." -Gloria Steinem
-M.R. Baird