Thanks for the Memories

What a time this has been. As I prepare to turn off my most consistent companion, "Ms. L. Top," in anticipation of one of my last flights back to DC's National Airport, I am tired, elated and once again in awe of all of the incredible women who have allowed me a glimpse into their hearts and a share of a chapter in their lives.

How to capture a slice of this incredible seven-year journey as Action Vice President for NOW?

What are the most brilliant memories?

The recurring theme is the women who have made things happen. Their vitality, their courage, their fears and their unbridled optimism that by taking action we will pry open the gates to the "American Dream" so that women and all the "others" get onto those elusive, even playing fields beyond:

• June Barrett of Pensacola, with tears in her eyes, leading a march against clinic violence less than 48 hours after her beloved husband Jim had been murdered and she had been shot protecting women from the hate of anti-abortion fanatics.
• Nawal El Saadawi of Egypt writing and speaking about the horror of her own female genital mutilation and the millions of girl children so abused, for years an almost lone voice crying out to ears closed all around the globe.
• Two women of the South who described to me the hate calls, harassment and finally, being burned out of their home for daring to live openly together, white and black in a small Appalachian town.
• The activists at a small state university in the Northwest bringing together for the first time in history the Black Student Union and the BGLT (Bi-Gay-Lesbian-Transgendered Students) to organize for the 1996 March to Fight the Right in San Francisco.
• The little children of the United Farm Workers, wide-eyed and innocent, marching past invective-shouting Ku Klux Klan members during NOW's "March for Our Lives" in Tampa, Fla.
• The thousands of college women working together to bring hundreds of thousands to NOW's marches on Washington in 1992 and 1995, bridging all kinds of previously unsurmountable barriers: greeks, guerilla girls, athletes, anarfeminists, Black, white, Asian Pacific and brown . . . and then coming onto the National Mall with school and organization banners held high, wave after wave of colorful energy and commitment.
• The junior high students in rural Maine beaten up and hounded by homophobes, yet bravely working to defeat the anti-lesbian and gay referendum and concerned that the other students "seem to get lesbian and gay but don't understand about bisexuality" -- so they started a club to talk about it.
• The women of the House of Representatives marching over the "Hill" to challenge the Senate boys' club actions on white-washing Tailhook as their sister senators stand united on the floor demanding accountability.
• U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., holding hands, the microphone, and the floor until a vote revering the Confederate flag is reversed.
• The women of Japan and the women of the Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Ill., standing against incredible odds and facing down patriarchal cultures determined to make examples of them; their faces and stories forever now a part of mine.
• Standing in the freezing rain in Buffalo, N.Y., with Ginny Montes, looking like estranged cousins of the KKK with our garbage-bagged heads, forming a clinic defense line with other national board members we dub the Wall Hawgs. We draw disapproving looks from some very serious young clinic defenders who reprimand us for not understanding the seriousness of keeping the clinics open.
• Faith Evans rapping and teaching, a radical feminist whose presence and vision reassured NOW's leadership in the ongoing struggle to stop attacks on poor women; his untimely death challenging us to even greater commitment.
• Chapter folks pulling off action after action, lobbying at the state legislature, running for the school board, picketing, defending clinics, running campaigns, juggling families, work and sanity in the hope that the 21st Century will reap the progress that their struggles have sown.

We, all of us, have seen great changes in these seven years. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 in which women finally won the right to a jury trial and damages in employment discrimination cases; the Violence Against Women Act in which women won the civil right of freedom from gender-based violence; the culture-bending phenomenon of Anita Hill; the women of Tailhook, Aberdeen, The Citadel and VMI; lesbians and gays in the military; the women elected to Congress in 1992; the great marches and rallies; passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a first for reproductive freedom in the U.S. Congress.

And we have seen the intense backlash from the Army of God, Operation Rescue, Promise Keepers, the Majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives sounding the alarm that Congress has become too "fem-centric." And most infuriating, the increased harassment and attacks on our younger sisters and their self-esteem.

My vision for the future is one that holds unlimited challenge and possibility. This generation of young feminists is unapologetic and determined to claim and mold this culture as its empowered movers and shakers. This is the future of NOW. As I am ending a remarkable chapter in my life, I look forward to turning the page and jumping with both feet into the rest of the story.