lauralee farrer, who is a filmmaker/artist/woman i greatly admire, told a story in a talk she gave to a group of women at her church...i found the story incredibly inspiring...i hope you will, too...
"How do women fight by not fighting, advance simply by not backing down. It reminds me of the mothers of the desaparecidos, which is my butchered Spanish for "the disappeared." For thousands of Argentine families this word symbolizes a truly terrible occurance in the late 70's and early 80's when thousands of dissidents and innocent civilians unconnected with terrorism were kidnapped in the middle of the night, illegally detained, tortured, killed and their bodies hidden---never to be seen again. On a day in 1977, fourteen mothers of young desaparecidos met in the Plaza de Mayo to hand a petition to the President Jorge Rafael Videla. In protest of their disappeared children, they embroidered their childrens' names on white head scarves and stood mutely in the square, embarrassing the government, shaming it and finally toppling it.
Here's how they fought without fighting. When a policeman demanded to see a woman's papers, 300 women stepped forward. If one woman was threatened with arrest, others demanded to go with her. Once in prison, they would start to pray or yell out prayers, calling on God to vent his wrath on their persecutors. It's courageous, it's strategic, it's powerful. And it is female. Videla was ultimately prosecuted for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity and the world learned about this issue because of those women. They have been gathering every Thursday afternoon since---for 3 decades---once they gathered in protest, now they gather in memorial.
I shall not be moved. Tom Petty sang, "you can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." On the surface, in the flesh and blood, those women were standing in silence, there in the public square where they could not be ignored. I see them, armored in light, a long great line, side by side, facing the gates of hell. We may or may not be afraid, but we shall NOT be moved."
i find courage and strength in this story...i hope you do, too...don't give up...no matter how big the opposition, no matter how impossible the situation...it can be conquered...it can be changed...God always gets the last word...
"How do women fight by not fighting, advance simply by not backing down. It reminds me of the mothers of the desaparecidos, which is my butchered Spanish for "the disappeared." For thousands of Argentine families this word symbolizes a truly terrible occurance in the late 70's and early 80's when thousands of dissidents and innocent civilians unconnected with terrorism were kidnapped in the middle of the night, illegally detained, tortured, killed and their bodies hidden---never to be seen again. On a day in 1977, fourteen mothers of young desaparecidos met in the Plaza de Mayo to hand a petition to the President Jorge Rafael Videla. In protest of their disappeared children, they embroidered their childrens' names on white head scarves and stood mutely in the square, embarrassing the government, shaming it and finally toppling it.
Here's how they fought without fighting. When a policeman demanded to see a woman's papers, 300 women stepped forward. If one woman was threatened with arrest, others demanded to go with her. Once in prison, they would start to pray or yell out prayers, calling on God to vent his wrath on their persecutors. It's courageous, it's strategic, it's powerful. And it is female. Videla was ultimately prosecuted for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity and the world learned about this issue because of those women. They have been gathering every Thursday afternoon since---for 3 decades---once they gathered in protest, now they gather in memorial.
I shall not be moved. Tom Petty sang, "you can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." On the surface, in the flesh and blood, those women were standing in silence, there in the public square where they could not be ignored. I see them, armored in light, a long great line, side by side, facing the gates of hell. We may or may not be afraid, but we shall NOT be moved."
i find courage and strength in this story...i hope you do, too...don't give up...no matter how big the opposition, no matter how impossible the situation...it can be conquered...it can be changed...God always gets the last word...
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