I walked with you all today through the blizzard because I believe – deep in my heart − that it’s women’s time in American history.
I walked with you all today because I want to get involved in that.
We all come from a history where we women were controlled by our menfolk, where we were directed, led, protected – or abused – by our menfolk. We come from a history where the sphere of women’s influence was limited to caring for our homes and families.
But we are now reaping the fruits of our foremothers’ hard work – hard, hard work that got us voting rights, that now gives us choices about what we do with our bodies, that now gives us choices about what we do with our minds and energies, that now affords us opportunities to direct, lead, and protect ourselves and our communities.
We now can influence not only the sacred and central inner workings of our homes – which we still do – but we can also influence the vital and influential workings of public life, our shared life.
How?
- We work – so we influence the economy.
- We earn – so we have the opportunity to be financially independent and understand the responsibility and opportunity this gives us.
- We lead – so we have voice and can shape the policies and practices that we all live with day to day.
But what really makes this women’s time in American history?
Women care. This is our tradition, our history as much as it is our collective future, too.
Women bring an ancient tradition, a daily practice, a way of being, that our country needs now: we bring care to public life.
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My generation and younger – I’m speaking directly to you now:
We need to step up.
We can’t be sitting around waiting for other people to provide for us. We can’t allow ourselves to feel entitled to the freedoms and rights we enjoy. We can’t let problems we see be someone else’s problem to solve.
So GET INVOLVED. From where you are.
If you stand on the top of that snow-covered mountain and look down on our Tahoe blue – and you care for the earth, water and air, landforms and creatures, the human race, GET INVOLVED.
If you know that economies we all depend on can’t survive without careful management and accountability to the people who pay for them – and you care about fiscal responsibility, GET INVOLVED.
If you look into your child’s eyes and see every other mother looking into her child’s eyes – and you care for children and who they become, GET INVOLVED.
If you understand the difference between the opportunities you have had in your life and the opportunities your sisters in Syria or the Congo or Pakistan or across town have in their lives – and you care for disadvantaged people, GET INVOLVED.
If you know that women still do not earn as much as men do for equal work or that achievement gaps still plague our education and workforce systems or that brutality and discrimination still exists across racial and ethnic lines – and you care for equity and fairness, GET INVOLVED.
If you know that every day around the world from Oakland to Bangladesh to Sierra Leone, many, many girls and women are sold into slavery – and you care for the sisters who are enslaved, GET INVOLVED.
If you are your own decision maker about your body and you believe every woman should be empowered to be in charge of her own body – and you care for every body, GET INVOLVED.
If you believe deeply that every life is important, that every life should be counted and held sacred – and you care for every life, GET INVOLVED.
So…
If you care about the values you hold – the religious values, the feminist values, the family values, the political values, the values of your political party, values that need to become a new or revised, GET INVOLVED.
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So what happens when we get involved?
- We learn.
- How complex things are
- What the real details are
- What the big issues are
- From learning, we understand.
- Opportunities to make lasting change
- Chances to lead other people
- Ways to solve problems for the better.
- From learning and understanding, we care more.
- Appreciate the complexities and other people who care too.
- Fuels our fires
- Find ourselves in our work.
And all this sets an example for the next generation.
My daughters Addie and Miri are almost 6 and 8. Over the next four years, the influences in their lives will form who they are the rest of their lives.
From my standpoint as their mother, the stakes are as high as they could be. I want them to see me and the women around them as having the courage to step up, to care for the world around us, and to demonstrate what democracy is. We are ultimately accountable to them, the citizens of the future.
Our democracy is always on the edge of survival. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton knew this. Peg Kortes and all of us here know this.
In 2016, we saw a more divided country than my generation has ever seen. We can’t afford to leave decisions to someone else. We must get involved and be decision makers.
So, GET INVOLVED for your country.
Our democracy always stands in the balance. It doesn’t exist without us making it. As Dr. King said,
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Our leadership is always accountable to the people because our leadership is the people. So be leaders. Be decision makers. Don’t sit back and wait. Don’t back seat drive. Every women, every man, every gender or sexual orientation, every language group, skin color, tradition represented here: GET INVOLVED.
We must care for this fragile democracy – we must show the world how to care for this fragile democracy – so that our children will have this American home for the rest of their lives.
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We have a way for you to get involved right now… [pledges]
annehdavidson 