Don't Get Weary...

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

February 8, 2006

What a month!

Thanks to all of you who marched, protested, and above all, called Senators to raise hell about Alito. I'm proud that we did not go gentle into that dark night—we put up a good fight, and should all be proud of ourselves and of the 25 of our courageous allies in the Senate, led by Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, who stood with us and tried to block Alito's confirmation with a filibuster (translation of filibuster: an ongoing debate which can defeat a nomination if 41 senators support it).

At the same time, we will NOT forget that 75 Senators made Alito's confirmation possible by voting to kill the filibuster. This is particularly sad because there were 42 votes against the nomination, and it only takes 41 votes to stop the nomination, if the senators had cared to do it. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

If you haven't already weighed in to "thank or spank" your senator for their vote on the filibuster of Alito (called a "cloture" vote), it's not too late. Or you can just see how your senator voted.

No Senator who voted to stop the filibuster can hide behind a "no" vote on Alito—we know which of the two votes really counted. They have taken women and women's votes for granted, and they need to know that every time Alito rules against women's rights and civil rights, we will be reminding them that they must take responsibility for their cowardice. We are in an ongoing fight for the soul of our democracy, and we will eventually emerge victorious. We may have lost this battle, but we plan to win the war.

Speaking of a war that we must win, George W. Bush said in the State of the Union address last week that he favors a budget that "substantially reduces or eliminates more than 150 government programs that...do not fulfill essential priorities." Essential priorities like, say, Medicaid, which will be reduced by $29 billion over the next 10 years under the new budget? Essential priorities like student loans? The $12.7 billion cut from the student loan program could mean $3,000 more in interest payments for struggling college students. Essential priorities like family planning for low-income women? Again, funding was cut from these lifesaving programs, and now they're "optional" for the states.

Meanwhile, Bush couldn't find money to fund his failing No Child Left Behind plan, nor to provide for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region—but he demanded billions more for the war in Iraq, which has cost us 2,245 soldiers and $337 billion already. And of course more tax cuts for his wealthy friends. And Mr. Bush wants to lecture us on priorities?

The Bush-led budget war (Operation: You're On Your Own) is a war that targets the most vulnerable members of society-including women and children-while lining the pockets of the highest-income earners. He strong-armed passage of this cruel budget late last week, but only narrowly (218 to 216 in the House) and we will be working all year to make sure that these losses are reversed in next year's vote.

And here's another upsetting tale from the battlefield - literally. According to a Jan. 30 report by Marjorie Cohn:

"The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn't located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. "There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night," [former General Janis] Karpinski told retired US Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview. It was there that male soldiers assaulted and raped women soldiers. So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn't drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn't have to urinate at night. They didn't get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said."

Although those particular deaths have not yet been confirmed, the widespread sexual assaults against female soldiers is well-known inside and outside of the military. Our government and our military should be ashamed of this brutality, and instead of blaming and ostracizing the women [maybe she shouldn't have been wearing that sexy camouflage], they need to punish the men who are terrorizing the women who are risking their lives in military service. They, and we, deserve no less.

Closer to home, we lost two of our own female soldiers last week: Coretta Scott King and Betty Friedan, whose leadership in the civil rights and women's rights movement inspired us all to keep moving forward, every day.

Friedan, a NOW founder and our first president, was our catalyst. Her words made women think about all that they are and all that they can be. Because of her, so many of the limitations that our mothers and grandmothers knew are limitations that our daughters will never experience.

Betty's legacy reminds me of a quote by George Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and say why—I dream things that never were and say why not." Betty dared to speak of possibilities for women that had never been available and said, "Why not?"

The first time I saw Coretta Scott King, who was an early member of the NOW National Board of Directors, she was urging a packed crowd at the 1978 National NOW Conference to fight on, no matter the battle, no matter how long. This week, especially, her closing words at that conference have echoed in my head:

"So let us continue to work together, because when we are together there is a kind of strength that we get from each other, and when we are right, as we are, then we certainly will win our cause... Therefore, my sisters, let us walk together, and don't get weary."

Don't get weary, we still have a long walk together,

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