Onward, America
The morning after last week’s presidential debate, I clipped on my Women of Steel lapel pin and headed out the door to a rally full of activist women. I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a way to throw open the windows and banish those twins of despair: fear and panic.
My lapel pin was a recent gift from Tiffany McKee, a staff representative for the United Steelworkers, District 1. She knows that Sherrod always wears a Steelworkers pin depicting a canary in the coalmine. She also knew I was born a union kid.
“I thought you should have your own pin,” she told me when I called to thank her. We had a wonderful conversation. Her gift, magnified.
Tiffany was a single mother who worked three jobs to support her family before she joined the union. “The Steelworkers changed my life,” she said. “If I won the lottery, I’d still work in this job.”
Every time I wear this pin, I feel a surge of camaraderie with women who, like Tiffany, carry as they climb. As a Boomer, I have a sense of urgency about this. Our younger sisters need our support, and opportunities abound. We can lead with our injuries, insisting that we had it tough and so should they. Or we can do all that we can to help clear the trail. How we respond is our legacy. Success for me, not thee, is the epitaph of a lonely grave.
There’s no denying last week’s debate was a disaster, on all fronts. In its immediate aftermath, so many pundits declared themselves at a loss for wise words and then proceeded to prove it. Few of us are instantly sage in the heat of the moment; certainly, I am not, if my children are to be believed. By morning, declarations of doom and despair had turned my timeline into a highway full of road gators.
Fun fact in case you didn’t know: Road gators are those tire treads that fly off the wheel of 18-wheelers and are as common as roadkill in Ohio. I learned the name for them during one of our endless rides on I-71, when it occurred to me that they must be called something fancier than tire treads. I looked it up and now I can’t stop pointing to them and yelling, “Road gator! Road gator! Gator! Gator!” I do this to the delight of absolutely nobody in the car with me, I sense.
So often, one must make her own fun on the campaign trail.
The debate was a potent reminder that it’s never a good idea to put all our faith in one human being. As a dear friend, a legendary activist, reminded me recently, no one is coming to save us. It’s up to us to do the hard work of this democracy.
On the morning after, I needed to be in the company of women with a lifetime of experience exceeding the low expectations of others. They were there to support Sherrod’s senate campaign, and I wanted to thank them for that. But I had another reason for tagging along. I know that something else—something glorious—often happens when women gather for a cause. I think of it as coming home.
I walked through the door and into a family reunion. We clasped hands and hugged and laughed at the sight of one another. In that room we asked, “How are you?” and meant it, and we listened to the answers. We shared stories from our lives and family photos on our phones. When it was time for speeches, we stood close to one another, emboldened by what we know to be true: Defeat is an empty room.
We are the women who did all that we could last year to preserve abortion rights in Ohio. We fought for democracy, and we won. We know the power of showing up. And so do you. I’m sure of it.
In 124 days, each of us has the chance to defend democracy again. This is the America I celebrate today. This is the America we can make sure still exists, 125 days from now.
I am so with you , Connie. All of us women must come out and vote!!!! If we stand together like we did here in Ohio to return our right to our own bodies, we can do anything!! I will do all that I can to make sure that we keep our democracy. And I hope that all Americans who believe in truth and justice and freedom will come out in droves to save our nation from the evil threat of a fascist dictator.
Oh Connie. What an awful worrying week for the country I love. I needed to read your words. Thank you!