We survive war and conquest; we survive colonization, acculturations, assimilation; we survive beating, rape, starvations, mutilation, sterilization, abandonment, neglect, death of our children, our loved ones, destruction of our land, our homes, our past, and our future. We survive, and we do more than just survive. We bond, we care, we fight, we teach, we nurse, we bear, we feed, we earn, we laugh, we love, we hang in there, no matter what.
—— Paula Gunn Allen,
The sacred hoop: recovering the feminine in American Indian traditions
“A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground.”
Yesterday Governor Tim Walz became Vice President Kamala Harris’s personal choice to become her Veep in the 2024 campaign. Of course Pretty had vetted the governor before I even knew who he was. We both sat and watched their first campaign event together in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, the birthplace of America.
When the topic is women’s reproductive rights, follow the yellow brick road repaired by a Wizard named Walz in his home state of Minnesota six months after the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court in June, 2022, that took away a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Minnesota became the the first state to restore personal freedom of choice for women in January, 2023, an effort championed by its governor Tim Walz who understood from his own experience that personal health decisions must be personal.
4-year-old granddaughter Ella watches at Aunt Coco’s house
Daddy holds 2-year-old Molly while Uncle Seth watches with them
both granddaughters will grow up with a woman President (hopefully!)
I like Tim, or as I have decided to call him, Happy Tim. I also had a Civics teacher in junior high school who was a football coach, and I credit that course with sparking my interest in understanding the importance of separation of powers in our government. Coach K smiled a lot, too, but our football team wasn’t nearly as good as Coach Walz’s.
Onward.
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P.S. Thanks to Mama Caroline for pictures used here.
meeting Fani Willis, district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia
DA Willis was in Columbia this week for a fundraiser for her reelection campaign, and my friend Nekki got me a ticket to go with her to the event. I have the utmost admiration for Willis who has refused to be bullied by the Bully-ex-Chief of all bullies. The atmosphere at the fundraiser was upbeat, festive, and celebratory of not only our Georgia sister but also women in South Carolina who are incumbents in political offices and/or campaigning to serve. I needed a good dose of hope, and the people who surrounded me in that intimate gathering had kept hope alive.
A separate event the next day was much smaller, but no less intimate nor hopeful when Field Director Nicholaus Outen led South Carolina state senatorial candidate Francie Kleckley’s team of volunteers in an assembly line production of putting together the newly arrived yard signs followed by training us for our initial canvassing efforts in nearby neighborhoods. Time to put pedal to the metal.
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told:‘I’m with you, kid.Let’s go.’”
(Maya Angelou, American memoirist and poet)
Now is the time for all people of good will to come to the aid of their country. Yesterday is over and done, tomorrow is not promised, we only have today to be the change we long to see. I’m with you, kids. Let’s go.
Tennis GOAT Serena WilliamsatUS Open Tournament in 2013
Occasionally Pretty sends me an unforgettable image from her Twitter Scrolls – this one made my visual week highlights – three of my favorite Black women in sports.
Good start to Celebration Sunday with National Championship Parade this afternoon! Go, Gamecocks!
On June 30, 1966, the National Organization for Women was founded by activists who wanted to end sex discrimination. Who could argue with that lofty goal?
Oh, well. Just about everyone. Many men felt threatened in those early days by a national organization formed to remove barriers of discrimination they liked and needed. Women of color often felt excluded because they weren’t represented in the movement. Queer women felt equally left out. Voter suppression wasn’t a major talking point. Intersectional feminism, what exactly was that? Misunderstood, misconstrued, lost in translation – the challenges of the early days of the National Organization for Women.
In an effort to better explain its mission, Article II of the bylaws adopted by the NOW membership in 2020 states the following:
NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.
NOW’s 2024 Action Plan aims to “win a feminist vistory in the 2024 elections, defeat estremist attacks and restore women’s rights” through grassroots campaigns.
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