This morning I read about a woman who was clearly one of the most courageous ever. Megan Rice was a Catholic nun and she was a peace activist. She had been arrested and spent two years in a federal prison while she was in her 80’s. She had broken into a government complex to protest the harboring of nuclear weapons. She died recently at the age of 91.
In the 1971 film, Harold and Maude (played by actress Ruth Gordon) Maude rescues a dying tree from the city, intent on driving it to the forest in order to save it. She was a Holocust survivor about to turn 80 years old.
I am not nearly so courageous as these women. My own peace activism is carried on behind the safety of my computer. Throughout history in nearly every country, women have banded together to protest war and march for peace. They have marched for women’s rights, civil rights, and voting rights. They have come from all walks of life. They have protested through songwriting and acting, through writing and uniting. They have fought for human rights and animal rights. They have been young and old; but there is no denying that a woman on a mission is a woman to be reckoned with. You have probably heard of the famous quote from a line in the play, Mourning Bride, written by William Congreve: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” This sentiment usually refers to a woman who has been rejected in love; but I believe it reflects the enduring strength of women. From ancient times when women were marked as witches, tortured, hung, and burned at the stake, to the present day where in some countries they remain under the control of men, women are fighting their way back to equality.
We are the birth givers for a reason. A lactating mother can nurture her child with limitless tenderness and patience; but when that child is threatened, a terrifying fury is unleashed. We women are more powerful than we know. United, we can change the world.
