I have been greatly disturbed by the overturning of Roe v Wade. I keep hearing that we have taken a giant step backwards, after 50 years of moving towards a higher human consciousness. I look around and see that in spite of so much evidence of the destruction of our planet, it continues. The rich and powerful are getting richer and more powerful, while more people are being thrown onto the trash heap of society. It has also been 50 years since Rachel Carson’s, Silent Spring, was published; but the use of herbicides and pesticides has increased rather than decreased. The pharmaceutical companies continue to push their chemically derived poisons onto the unsuspecting public, relying on their ignorance, and on the aggressive marketing pitched at them through their televisions and other devices. The agriculture industries continue to fill store shelves with non-food that is laden with artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives.
My logical mind tells me that we cannot go backwards. Life always moves forward. Still, there is a heavy sense of oppression and hopelessness in the world today.
I have been watching classic episodes of Little House on the Prairie, a TV series from 1975. One episode that I recently watched reminded me of the power of women, whenever they come together for a cause. Teenaged Mary was punched in the face by a boy, giving her a black eye. The next time he tried to intimidate and hurt her, she fought back. Then all of the other girls on the playground came together and descended on the bully, sending him off with his tail between his legs. Inspired by the girls, the rest of the town then pulled together and walked the boy, and the two adults who were with him (and who had stolen from many of the towns’ people) out of their town.
It won’t be long before women come together, along with people of color and the LGBTQ community, to descend on a government that no longer feels like a democracy. Women will take back their power – and the power of women together is a power to be reckoned with.
