This is the year we, women, will write ourselves into history.
Greek historia “a learning or knowing by inquiry; an account of one’s inquiries, history, record, narrative.”
I am not talking about feminism and equal rights. I am talking about us taking control of how we go down in history. Fifty years from now, when kids study the past, there must be a fluidity of historical events as recorded by not man, or woman, but by:
Alice – Inventor of so and so, or Zandile – inspired a revolution, or Devi – led the soccer team to victory. They will read about Constable Catherine’s work in the community, and about motivational speaker Madelaine’s series, Dancing Through The Darkness. They will read about Doctor Chin’s work with mentally ill patients. They will read about how we dealt with a refugee crisis, and about the movement to end terrorism from all corners – religious zealots, flip-flop governments, and greedy corporations. That’s just the beginning. Bottom line? Future generations will read about our part in history, and they will study and appreciate our legacy to them.
Historically we were, not erased or phased out exactly but, bold-facedly ignored while credit for many of our work was taken away and given to men. We, like millions of young girls around the world today, were kept away from the dangers of education.
Our ancestors banded together to fight injustice, and left us a better world for all. They lived through two waves, countless failures, and many triumphs. And then they passed the torch to us.
(W.E.B. Du Bois, The Crisis, pp. 29–30, 1915) “All these arguments sound today ancient. If we turn to easily available statistics we find that instead of the women of this country or of any other country being confined chiefly to childbearing they are as a matter of fact engaged and engaged successfully in practically every pursuit in which men are engaged. The actual work of the world today depends more largely upon women than upon men.”
We Failed: 101 years later, and we are still not demanding the spotlight.
“We martyred ourselves for bigger causes,” is always a good excuse. Meh, that shit is old now.
The worst thing we have done to date is, we failed Hillary Clinton. This woman walked the gauntlet of politics, she withstood everything with one goal in mind – to bring us into the upper echelons of that world that only belongs to the institute of old white men.
Yeah, maybe she made the mistake of not working harder for our support. She, like myself and countless women, assumed all women would have the same desire – to transcend that world and fight from the inside for what is right and just for all people.
The past taught us everything we know, the present is just a preemptive to the future.
The wars we won cannot be un-won, even if the laws are undone, á la The new america.
We are smarter, more educated, savvier, and run more industries worldwide, than ever before in history. We also own more cameras, are prolific writers, and know how to work The Media. Heck we probably own and run the show already so why not make Women a news-worthy topic?
“That is a sleeping dragon. Let him sleep! If he wakes, he will shake the world.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Umm, we are the sleeping dragon. Yawn and stretch ladies, it’s time to rock this world! WE are going down in history, come hell or high-water, we will act on all the useless talk. We will not blame “The World Going To Hell In A Hand-basket” on the government, media, or men. We will bring comfort to refugees, we will advocate for less-guns-more-food, we will inspire more people to demand justice, and we will take more credit for it. We will not shut up, sit down, or go away.
And yep, we actually do want world peace.
Some of the biggest, and best, PR firms are owned and operated by women…just saying.
#WE GOT THIS ONE!
Changing the world one woman-one movement at a time. Any woman out there who would like to tell their story, drop an email – samanthamcleod1@gmail.com
