Below The Belt: Confident for the Future

Confident for the Future

Below the Belt: A Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

January 16, 2009

As I write my first Below the Belt of 2009, I am overjoyed to chronicle and comment on this truly historic moment in time.

Without a doubt, this is a big month for the people of the United States. On Jan. 19 we will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in honor of the remarkable civil rights leader. The inauguration of Barack Obama, our nation's first African-American president, will take place the very next day. On Jan. 22, activists across the country will commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Any day now, Hillary Clinton will be confirmed by the Senate as the third woman to serve as Secretary of State.

And, drum roll please, January is the month we say good bye to George W. Bush, the man who occupied the White House for the past eight loooong years. We also will bid a not-so-fond adieu to Dick Cheney, arguably the most influential, destructive U.S. Vice President ever, as well as numerous other aiders-and-abetters in the Bush administration.

Let's address Bush first and get him out of the way, because I don't want to dwell much longer on the damage he's done. Since I started writing this column back in October of 2003, Bush has provided me with endless cause for outrage. If memory serves, in fact, it was the attacks of Bush and his cronies on women's reproductive options and similar low blows and unsavory tactics that inspired the name Below the Belt.

Even a short summary of Bush's crimes against women, democracy, civil rights, human rights, privacy, liberty, health and science (to name just a few) could keep me up all night writing, and I've already lost too many nights of sleep thanks to George W.

It's telling that in his final press conference on Jan. 12, Bush deflected, disputed and just plain ignored most of the major criticisms of his presidency. His repeated use of the word disappointed or disappointment (I counted 12 instances) perfectly demonstrated his refusal to take responsibility for the violence, suffering and divisiveness he has wrought. He remains resolutely clueless about his complicity in the disaster that was and is Katrina. And forget Bush ever admitting to the moral failure of the war in Iraq and the torture and imprisonment at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay.

In one of those illuminating twists of fate, Bush's last full day in office occurs on Martin Luther King Day -- and the two leaders could not be more different. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to celebrating human worth, achieving social justice, addressing the economic inequities that contribute to poverty, and advocating a strategy of nonviolent direct action as a means for change. His vision of a better country challenges us to rise above a history of oppression and violence and become a mature and enlightened nation.

In the last year of his life, King spoke out often against the Vietnam War, describing it as an "enemy of the poor" that suctioned away money and energy from anti-poverty programs. King identified his own government as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" and claimed that his country could "never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over." Re-reading King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech today, not only does it offer striking parallels to the actions of Bush's administration, but it very nearly predicted the situation in which we find ourselves right now -- that of a "thing-oriented society" driven by "profit motives and property rights."

King's wife, Coretta Scott King, lived another 38 years after his assassination and continued to work on a broad range of social justice issues. She was a civil rights leader in her own right, a lifelong feminist, and a member of NOW's national board in the 1970s. She was also a supporter of LGBT rights, and a vocal objector to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Scott King passed away in January of 2006, and we remember and honor her this month as well.

Speaking of strong, successful women married to influential men (how's that for a segue?), it appears certain now that Hillary Clinton will become our next Secretary of State. In her Senate confirmation hearings this week, Clinton reminded us again why we respect and admire her.

When asked by Senator Barbara Boxer about violence against women around the world, Clinton had this to say: "This is not culture. This is not custom. This is criminal. And it will be my hope to persuade more governments, as I have attempted to do since I spoke at Beijing on these issues . . . 13 and some years ago, that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way."

Clinton continued: "I take very seriously the function of the State Department to lead our government through the Office on Human Trafficking to do all that we can to end this modern form of slavery. We have sex slavery, we have wage slavery, and it is primarily a slavery of girls and women. . . . So we're going to have a very active women's office, a very active office on trafficking. We're going to be speaking out consistently and strongly against discrimination and oppression of women and slavery in particular, because I think that is in keeping not only with American values, as we all recognize, but American national security interests as well."

As I mentioned, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade also falls in January, and Hillary Clinton has been a longtime proponent of women's reproductive rights. I am counting on Clinton to do her part to ensure that the Obama administration restores global U.S. family planning funds cut off by Bush, eliminates restrictions on condom distribution, and reinstates U.S. support of the United Nations Population Fund.

Which brings me to our next president. Jan. 20 will be a proud day for our country, and I believe it will mark a crucial turning point in this nation's history. Would I like to be shivering out in the cold celebrating the swearing-in of the first woman president of the United States? You bet I would! But make no mistake, Barack Obama's victory is a victory for us all.

During this transition period, from the day of the election right up to today, the Obama-Biden team has been more receptive to meeting with feminists and listening to our ideas than any incoming administration in my 30 years of NOW leadership. I am confident for the future. For the first time in eight years, I can say that I look forward to working with this president. I am counting on making major strides toward full equality for women.

Most of all, I am counting on each and every one of us to work together to make this possibility a reality. It is up to us to show our new president the way.

Read about NOW's work with the Obama-Biden transition team and how you can make a difference.

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