MountainMornings

If you’re old enough to remember Nixon’s bid for re-election against George McGovern in 1972, then you may have read the best selling book about that campaign as seen through the eyes of the mostly male political press corps, “The Boys on the Bus” by Timothy Crouse. Ah those were the days: reporters only had one deadline a day; many had intimate access to the candidates; boozing and cavorting were de rigueur, and applauded! http://www.npr.org/2012/04/19/150577036/boys-on-the-bus-40-years-later-many-are-girls These were Mad Men indeed, writing copy that could possibly sway a nation. I was 23 years old, had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and it was my first presidential vote. Only one state went blue, and later Nixon brought us Watergate. To this day, I am proud that along with the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I voted for McGovern.

This Saturday women, and some of the men who love them, will be boarding buses all over these United States in order to unite our sisters as one voice. Our bodies, Our Choices, Our vote. Back in the day, when I had one deadline a week in MA, women were still being categorized as “soft” copy. Articles by and for women, as often as not, appeared buried in the “Style” section. Today, with a 24/7 news cycle and social media, gender-specific issues can hit the front page anywhere, and a bill about “Personhood” in MS might just roll across your Facebook news feed in VA. My friend in NY, will read about our Governor rethinking the “Trans-Vaginal Ultrasound Bill” because he had ‘no idea’ it was that intrusive.

And so it adds up – like death by a thousand cuts – we see a slow but steady legislative assault on our very autonomy, on our civil rights. “Nine hundred forty four bills (to limit women’s reproductive health and rights) in the first three months of this year alone. Nine hundred sixteen such bills introduced and considered in 2011, and hundreds in 2010. Never before on any matter has there been such a legislative offensive, such a coordinated drive to overrule the law of the land and force everyone to adhere to one set of religious beliefs.”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-helfert/from-the-frontlines-of-the-war-on-women_b_1450296.html
For one woman it was seeing Sandra Fluke denied her right to speak, and then being degraded by a right-wing nut case. For another it was a presidential candidate threatening to ban contraception! Margaret Sanger, we need you again. So two ordinary women, united by their belief in a woman’s ability to make her own decisions about her body, got together on Facebook and started a revolution…they said we have to take to the streets, again. And we bi-partisan women, blue, red and all other shades, we were listening.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-hannah-grufferman/unite-women-march_b_1447021.html

If you are fed up with the “Boys on the Bus” mentality, with the kind of thinking that brought us this religious vs state testimony excluding women from the conversation and you want to join us, feel free. Our bus leaves for Richmond at 11:30 and arrives at Nina F. Abady Festival Park, 449 N. 7th Street, Richmond, VA for a 2pm rally. 50 state capitals will be filled with women on Saturday. I wonder who will be listening. To find your state’s event: http://unitewomen.org/unite/