I’ve been sitting with my feelings, I’ve been stewing about Alito sitting on the Supreme Court, I’ve been trying mightily to come to a less than fiery condemnation of the Senate and how women were so viciously and immorally let down by every single senator, Republicans and Democrats.
We’ve been concentrating on the cloture vote, so many on the blogs worked hard to convince 41 senators it was the right thing to do, to dig down deep within themselves, to tap into their consciences and vote no on cloture. There has been a lot of disagreement on who let us down and who didn’t. There have been clarion calls for unity, there have been pleas to not surrender, to not give up, to fight the good fight. What there hasn’t been is a willingness to admit and give respect to those of us who feel we are not anti-American or traitors to this party or cowards or idiots if we believe it is just as worthy, just as noble, just as courageous to fight for our lives, the lives we have known and gotten attached to.
Give us a chance, give us your ear, give us credit to see beyond what happened yesterday and the day before. Call the senators names if you must, but stop beating up on those of us who believe it takes enormous courage, it takes the truest of convictions, it takes becoming the change we want to see, perhaps not in our lifetime, but in the lifetimes of those who will follow us. It takes giving up the security, shattered as it may be, to question what lies ahead, it takes being willing to say, this is it, this is enough, we must find another way.
Even though Barack Obama’s timing was horrendous, what he had to say about the cloture vote was correct. The time to launch the campaign against Alito was not our responsibility, it is not our job to inform the American people, it doesn’t lie on our shoulders to ask the right questions, to be prepared for the hearings, to pay as much attention to the upcoming fight as our senators did selecting Christmas presents.
We deserved more, we deserve better, we were not only forgotten, a gift was taken from us, the gift of life, the gift that comes when we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that those who lead us will do everything in their power not to put our lives in danger. That gift was taken back in the past 91 days because our leaders had other things to do, more important things than women’s lives. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, the gift of life every woman should have was stripped from our grasp.
That is why we are searching our souls today for what to do next. It isn’t cut and dried for many of us. We love our country as much as anyone else does on this site, we are proud to be Americans even though we don’t agree with many of you here, we are not surrendering to those that would do us harm, we are not quitting, we are not giving up, we are not going to stop fighting.
Kate Michelman made the following statement today on what this all means to the women and girls in this country. She says it far more forcefully and eloquently than I can.
As an American, I am sorely disappointed by the lack of commitment to women and fundamental rights by the United State Senate. It is particularly appalling that supposedly pro-choice Senators would stand aside in parliamentary silence and allow this right — and probably many others — to be whisked away with little more than perfunctory debate.
As a Pennsylvanian, I am particularly appalled that local and national Democrats would hand our Senate nomination to someone who openly supports giving Roe an Alito-induced death. Those whose political successes have depended on the ballots and contributions of pro-choice voters but now facilitate the career of someone who would repeal those rights deserve special enmity.
A generation ago, women who suffered the indignities and terror of illegal abortion came forward with a commitment to be “silent no more.” In light of today’s vote, those of us who walk in their footsteps should make a similar commitment. With Roe poised to fall, there is no reason to yield any more to arguments about “the lesser of evils.” Evil has been visited upon us, and we should resolve to do whatever it takes to redress the grievances we feel.
This is why it’s so difficult to just keep keeping on, to go along to get along, our senators stood aside in parliamentary silence as women’s lives hung in the balance.
As an American, I am sorely disappointed by the lack of commitment to women and fundamental rights by the United State Senate.
As an American, I am sorely disappointed also. I’m incensed by all the talking and postulating about being commited to women lives, to preserving our most fundamental right, the right to have dominion over our bodies when it turns out it was all just a bunch of hot air.
I’m sick and tired of the rallying calls for women to do what women do best, fundraise, walk precincts, phonebank, and give those tidy little coffee chats in our living rooms while we are told, once again, that our rights will someday be important enough not just to protect but to even talk about on the local and/or national stage.
With Roe poised to fall, there is no reason to yield any more to arguments about “the lesser of evils.” Evil has been visited upon us, and we should resolve to do whatever it takes to redress the grievances we feel.
Amen, Kate, amen.
