For All Of Our GRANDdaughters and Their GRANDdaughters
Editor’s note: I’m proud to post this essay from a concerned grandmother who was at one time the editor for GRAND. If you take issue with this essay, please don’t hesitate to tell me why at editor@grandmagazine.com. GRAND welcomes submissions.
It began on Election Day, that feeling that women were being dismissed and disrespected deliberately. It was a niggling feeling at first, like a stomach ache.
Then it grew as we were forced to watch a man who boasted about grabbing pussy actually get inaugurated into our country’s highest office.
If you are not a woman you may have hated that too, but it was different for you. Yes, maybe you were disgusted but for us that disgust was mixed with fear because our worst nightmare had become reality. A man who hated women, who saw women as disposable playthings for his jollies, was in charge.
We watched in horror as he demeaned women publicly, even those like Nikki Haley, whom he had chosen to work with him.
And no one stood up to stop him.
We watched as he chose his first SCOTUS pick, a man bent on taking women’s rights back a century.
And no one stood to stop him.
We watched as he repeatedly and publicly disrespected our nation’s finest and most successful women, Hillary, Maxine, Elizabeth and others.
That sickened feeling grew to a daily dose of bile in the backs of our throats which we had to keep swallowing to keep from vomiting daily.
And no one raised a voice to stop him.
We watched as he nominated another SCOTUS pick, another white male of privilege and power hand-picked to roll back women’s rights and to insure that no one could stop Trump, should his case reach our highest court.
But this time someone stood up and cried out, STOP! ENOUGH! THIS MAN TRIED TO RAPE ME.
But instead of listening to her, the Republicans, with Trump at the helm, complained of her timing, called her mixed up and not someone to be believed, said the attempted rapist is a fine person (you know, just like Trump’s Nazis were) and this shouldn’t stop his nomination to our highest court.
Because what’s so bad about a little rape attempt by a high school boy? He didn’t do it but if he did, he was drunk and wasn’t she drinking too so doesn’t that make him innocent and her guilty?
But not freakin’ anymore. This time we women are taking that sick feeling we’ve had for two years, we are spitting out that bile and we are summoning every bit of anger and fear and nausea and we are marrying that to our boundless energy and fierce determination and we are screaming from every corner of America, from urban to rural in cities and towns, from sea to shining sea…
We are mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it anymore.
We will be voting in droves because we are registering voters, driving to polls, writing posts on social media, talking over back fences, chatting in coffee shops, in churches, in synagogues and in mosques.
We will leave no woman behind, young and old, black, white, brown, and every shade of the rainbow, straight, gay, trans, cis, whoever feels what we feel, rich, poor, working, retired, students, singles, marrieds, child-free, Moms and Grammies, we are all joining in this beautiful women’s chorus and we are saying in unison, Time’s Up, Men, this system of patriarchy calling every shot ends now.
Women are going to show you this year just what happens when you piss us off. Republicans, you are going down. And not only are you going down, but women are going to vote in the most diverse Congress in history.
How dare you think you can take on one of us, dismiss her attempted rape accusation and deny her a full and fair investigation to shut her up and then ram through an accused attempted rapist as a lifetime appointment?
Did you really think you could burn one of us and the rest of us would not feel the pain?
We all feel the pain. Do you have no clue what #MeToo means?
It means when you disrespect one, we all feel the pain because we have all been there.
It means when you dismiss or demean or disparage one, we all feel the pain because we’ve been there.
It means when you patronize us to diminish us we all feel the pain because we’ve been there.
It means when you burn one of us we are all on fire.
Women are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore. There are more of us, we hold the power in our multitudes and come November, the Republicans, who don’t see it now will absolutely learn what #MeToo means.
You have been warned.
Women, get ready to roll. We are calling every one of you to serve your country in armed combat. You have the arms — the power is in your blue vote.
And good men, don’t think we are not happy to have you join us. We welcome the energy you can bring to this fight. We welcome you to work side by side with us to move America forward. But we will no longer march behind you. America will finally be America for All!
To read more from Debby Carroll – Who will run the world?
