Monday, March 3rd, 2008, 4:59 pm
In plain language from the heart of the Illinois prairie . . .
To every woman and to the men who struggle to understand them.
Before anything, before political party, race, religion, age, education and sexual preference, American, immigrant or alien,
You are woman.
And, I'll vote for a woman for myself and . . .
for my grandmother, never permitted to drive, who eked her every penny selling chicken eggs,
and my daughter who lost her home and her self-esteem,
and my mother, who was strong-willed and spoke her mind, even to church elders,
for battered women, for every child abused,
for every deserving woman denied fair consideration and promotion,
in spite of women who slept to position power and for those who did not,
for those still waiting for equal pay and opportunity,
for every woman who put her husband through college instead of herself,
for every woman who has given up her pet or her passion or her persona,
for every woman in the world today and throughout history who have given dignity and pride to our gender,
for Thatcher, Bhutto, Tubman, Patsy T. Mink, Juliette Gordon Low, Curie, Friedan, Georgia O'Keefe, Joan of Arc, suffragettes, Helen Reddy, Oprah, Sandra Day O'Connor, Bella Azbug and Princess Diana, Helen Thomas, Christa McAuliffe,
for those women of old Salem, those hidden in burkas, wrapped in saris and invisible chains and silent scars,
for those barrened in the back alleys,
for every woman who thinks she can and does and for every one who does not,
for every woman whether she's vegan, a vegetarian, vestal, a twinkie junkie, tomboy or gold digger,
for every subjugated woman in the world, who cannot vote, endures castration, suffers AIDS and sexual harassment,
because there are women who cannot liberate their minds or bodies and believe that men
are genetically and annointed by God to be superior,
and in spite of women who think liberated means being like a man and their shameless nakedness and verbal vulgarity is a virtue and their 'right,'
for every woman who has stood for her convictions and every one who cannot,
in disappointment where EEO and Title IX have failed,
even as the negating vote of every man who will never vote for a woman or of every woman who is waiting for the 'right' woman to run,
for women of the world who will never experience what I have in this country,
In ten or twenty or a hundred years, you and I will be forgotten, replaced, the world will still be turning and it will only matter that the world is somewhat better for what we did and the choices we made.
Look past prophecy and politicizing from pundits, pulpits, priests, preachers and teachers, pastors and parents, the press, and your partner and peers.
Think past today and your personal preferences and prejudice. Make up your own mind, think for yourself, think for your gender.
If you really think that men do a better job than women, then vote for a man. If you think that a man will ALWAYS do a better job for women than a woman can, stop reading.
You see, the 'ideal' woman candidate doesn't and never will exist nor does the 'ideal' male candidate.
Look around. Women do for each other, what no man has or can. They raise them, support them, comfort them, enlighten and lift them up and free them, cradle to grave. It has very little to do with politics, race, education or anything else.
So imperfect as we all are, vote because you can. Put on your own critical thinking cap, dust off your reading skills, look for the truth you think you need to know about the candidates. Then, imperfect as we all are, VOTE because you can.
Tags:
support, women, vote, voting, woman
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