How Many of Us?
All of Us
Dear Republicans.
You have been warned. Women speak!
Sisters persist. Resist.
How many of us women have been ignored, dismissed, silenced, repressed, suppressed, censored, banished, exiled, sacrificed, raped, stabbed, killed?
How many of us women have felt it too dangerous to speak? To ask, to question, to complain, to expose, to change, to object, to confront, to agitate, to resist, to fight. To be angry. To stand out.
We hang on to our good girl ways. Afraid of being scolded. Smiling, quiet, obedient, following the rules, excelling at the rules, working within the system. Little flickers of resistance emerging in safe outlets. A poem here. A prayer there. A whispered secret message to a daughter.
We all are brave. Just living takes guts. But some have that extra bit of courage to be bold. Heroines. Each generation gets bolder, with more support, and more examples of different women being different.
When our soul can’t stay quiet. When safety is worse than the battle. When we have nothing to lose. When fairness is compromised.
When our children’s future is jeopardized.
Then we speak. Now. We must speak. All of us.
We will persist. Resist.
I am with her. And her. And her. And her.
I Hide My Chocolate 