A Decade Later, Here We Are
I wrote this in 2013…. now look where we are today…
Re-reading a blog post I wrote this morning thinking perhaps in my feeling ill, I might have been harsh in my writing. So, I’m sitting here re-reading it. What is perplexing me is how word choice that is accurate has to be watered down in order to be palatable for public consumption. F words like feminism — not palatable. Patriarchy — completely accepted in application, but we don’t talk about it, we just obey. Capitalism — completely acceptable and harshly defended. Oligarchy — most people have no idea what it means. Fascism — completely unacceptable and no one will be willing to admit it exists here in America.
Now, how do you write these words without being beaten with clubs, while still using them accurately to explain how the current application of these words in America are preventing democracy? Maybe I’d better go out and buy a shield….. Lord knows I won’t be defended. Those who agree will stand silently on the sidelines cheering in their heads or sending me private messages that no one else will see, but not standing up with me in public.
My own family will verbally beat me to a pulp and tell me how crazy I am. It’s just too bad that I can’t see it their way. Their way has never supported my being a mother or a teacher. Their way has never allowed me to do what is right for my children or my students. Their way means I hand my children over and take the abuse assigned to my children or myself and I obediently obey and remain silent. I am, after all, just the vessel used to bring these beings into the world.
So now I stand here debating…. do I publish or do I remain silent to protect myself? It is a continuous dance. Take new beatings for speaking or live with the beatings assigned to me as a woman/mother/teacher. It really doesn’t matter does it? Either way it’s going to happen. I just know that I don’t want to jab fellow mothers and teachers to make them adhere to something that is harming them or their children/students. I’m no longer willing to participate in the oppression (another word we can’t use in America).
Anyone have a sugar-coated dictionary I could borrow….?
