Stick to the Truth–And Dance
Or–when I met Nancy Pelosi.
From childhood on, when a person is happy about something, they jump, twirl–they dance. In the teen years, new dance moves are often born of enthusiasm about a choice. They drive a person to experience the space around them.
That’s a great thing, Readers, that feeling of space, of choice. And it’s even better for women. Because it’s time for women to dance again, to move onto the floor, throw up their arms and call out for truth. Why? Because women are gaining voice and power. A grandmother is now third in line for the presidency during a time when men (and many whose dancing years left them long ago) are clinging to power with their last defense: women shaming and lies.
NAME CALLING
It’s an old trick and it has to stop. In the LA TIMES, Virginia Heffernan remembers a short story by Kristen Roupenian that appeared in the New Yorker. Talk about #MeToo! The story relates the disintegration of a couple’s relationship, the mild male character stooping to the lowest low when that relationship fails. He calls the woman he is supposed to have loved a “whore.” Why? The author indicates it’s that basic, baked in fear of women, fear of their power.
This week 102 women took office in the new Congress. 102!! And we are just beginning. Were they welcomed by the men? Not always. Heffernan writes that these guys holding on to their power well, “they’ve had enough.” Because when Rep. Rashida Tlaib from Michigan used the impeachment word and another commonplace vulgarism to refer to a certain person who uses vulgar language often but, come on now, he’s a guy–her supporters loved it, but men on the other side of the aisle scorned her vocabulary. She has not apologized.
DANCING, WELL NOT IN THE AISLES, YET…
These guys are also picking on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York saying she is so YOUNG (do older men fear young women) and insisting that she is naive. And she dances! What right has a congresswoman to dance? This is serious business. (Well you old guys don’t always stick to that seriousness when you are eager to destroy healthcare for all people–and that includes women and children, and you care naught for the rights of minorities and that also includes women and children. Who are you really serious about? Bankers–and we know how the gender numbers stack up in that category.)
TRUTH TELLING–YES ON BOTH SIDES
Jennifer Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist whose recent piece in TIME MAGAZINE–FACTS STILL EXIST– moved me. She writes that when online, the words of lies and truth look the same. And certainly their are folks who take advantage of that. She postulates that much of fraudulent news allows the avoidance of hard facts.
She writes: “How much better it would be if the Sandy Hook massacre really were a hoax, rather than an actual slaughter of 20 kindergartens and six school staff members.”
Or: “What a relief to conclude that hundreds of international climatologists are lying rather than face the perilous state of our talent–and the tiny window of time we have to preserve life as we know it.” IN OTHER WORDS, FEAR MAKES US WANT TO BELIEVE LIES. FEAR CAN CONTROL US.
Egan writes that the SHORT-TERM opioid-like effect of these lies gives the believer a kind of short-term solace (I don’t have to worry about those things) at the cost of our then inability to work on and solve these problems that are not going away: gun violence and climate change. She mentions a certain leader who at his rallies has co-opted the term FAKE NEWS, thus finding a way of keeping his followers happy. It’s the new bread and circuses. It is accepting to be ignorant and ignoring the truth. It is dangerous.
FREEDOM TO WRITE, SPEAK and DANCE
But new days are dawning and as they do, old fears are also rising. Can the women in our new Congress truly make a difference? Will they be listened too? Will they withdraw under the word lashes and criticism of the older male contingent? (My nice way of saying OLD WHITE MEN.) So far I’m betting on the women, who represent years of waiting, of working, of preparing for these moments. I’m betting on Nancy Pelosi. (see P.S.) I’m believing in their ability to dance, dance, dance. But most of all, I believe in their advocacy of TRUTH.
And like novelist Jennifer Egan writes and believes, the new congresswomen have arrived at their new positions BECAUSE they are not afraid to tell the truth, write now, speak well–do all of these things despite blowback, criticism, jeering and name-calling. They know that truth is our *BEST SHOT at saving our democracy.
And when they do, you can bet there will be lots of DANCING!!
P.S. Sometime during 2012, I met Nancy Pelosi. It was in a private home of a dear friend in Des Moines. Nancy was there to support Leonard Boswell who was running for reelection in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional district. When Nancy had finished speaking and was surrounded by many, my husband and I headed into the dining room for some treats. Moments later, someone tapped on my shoulder and I turned. It was Nancy Pelosi, asking my name and introducing herself. We chatted and my husband asked her “What is your most current important issue?” She smiled and responded, “My grandchildren.”
Now that makes me want to DANCE!
*Jennifer Egan’s phrase
Photo: My Collage
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