Marching for Women’s Equality and Lives, Circa 1989

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

I’ve been busy over the last days talking to relatives and neighbors who have either lost a job or are not finding a job since graduating from college.  They seem to have a sense of inertia, without a clue as to what to do.

I give them a real pep talk, with practical suggestions. I lost a couple of  jobs due to recessions…back in 1975 and again in 1981.  I was willing to take pay cuts, start at the bottom, take courses, learn how to write several types of resumes, switch fields and move if I had to.  The people I have talked to don’t seem to have that sort of drive and I’m not sure why.  Things are worse now in term of a future which doesn’t bode well for a return to normalcy, of course, but I’m struck by the sense of disbelief that seems to be hampering these folks.  It’s crippling them and they aren’t prepared to look at themselves and be willing to alter their set-in-stone plans.

The same sort of paralysis seems to extend to women these days.  Sure, we’ve been sold out by the national organizations, but the misogyny and attack on women’s health seems to be quite acceptable these days.  I can’t quite understand this sort of thing, since I came up through the days when we were fighting for our rights.

I was rummaging through a drawer and found a button from 21 years ago nearly to the day.  It was a march on Washington, one of several I went to.  I remember riding on a bus put together by the local chapter of NOW.  Many women’s groups joined together. We were all fighting mad in 1989.

I’m still angry and now I’m also broken-hearted.  This button brings me back to a day when women were galvanized and had a voice.

I wonder if these days a march on Washington would be even able to be organized, if there would be any interest… and if it actually occurred, whether it would be ignored by the media.

Something is very wrong, very wrong indeed…

When we were marching...