10/4/2012 0 Comments In the Spirit of PoliticsFull in thought about our capitalist system of governance, I happened upon this poem by Alice Walker on radio program, Democracy Now. "Democratic Womanism" You ask me why I smile when you tell me you intend in the coming national elections to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. There are more than two evils out there, is one reason I smile. Another is that our old buddy Nostradamus comes to mind, with his fearful 400 year old prophecy: that our world and theirs too (our "enemies" – lots of kids included there) will end (by nuclear nakba or holocaust) in our lifetime. Which makes the idea of elections and the billions of dollars wasted on them somewhat fatuous. A Southerner of Color, my people held the vote very dear while others, for centuries, merely appeared to play with it. One thing I can assure you of is this: I will never betray such pure hearts by voting for evil even if it were microscopic which, as you can see in any newscast no matter the slant, it is not. I want something else; a different system entirely. One not seen on this earth for thousands of years. If ever. Democratic Womanism. Notice how this word has "man" right in the middle of it? That’s one reason I like it. He is right there, front and center. But he is surrounded. I want to vote and work for a way of life that honors the feminine; a way that acknowledges the theft of the wisdom female and dark Mother leadership might have provided our spaceship all along. I am not thinking of a talking head kind of gal: happy to be mixing it up with the baddest bad boys on the planet her eyes a slit her mouth a zipper. No, I am speaking of true regime change. Where women rise to take their place en masse at the helm of earth’s frail and failing ship; where each thousand years of our silence is examined with regret, and the cruel manner in which our values of compassion and kindness have been ridiculed and suppressed brought to bear on the disaster of the present time. The past must be examined closely, I believe, before we can leave it there. I am thinking of Democratic, and, perhaps Socialist, Womanism. For who else knows so deeply how to share but Mothers and Grandmothers? Big sisters and Aunts? To love and adore both female and male? Not to mention those in between. To work at keeping the entire community fed, educated and safe? Democratic womanism, Democratic Socialist Womanism, would have as its icons such fierce warriors for good as Vandana Shiva Aung San Suu Kyi, Wangari Maathai Harriet Tubman Yoko Ono Frida Kahlo Angela Davis & Barbara Lee: With new ones always rising, wherever you look. You are also on this list, but it is so long (Isis would appear midway) that I must stop or be unable to finish the poem! So just know I’ve stood you in a circle that includes Marian Wright Edelman, Amy Goodman, Sojourner Truth, Gloria Steinem and Mary McLeod Bethune. John Brown, Frederick Douglass, John Lennon and Howard Zinn are there. Happy to be surrounded! There is no system There is no system now in place that can change the disastrous course the Earth is on. Who can doubt this? The male leaders of Earth appear to have abandoned their very senses though most appear to live now entirely in their heads. They murder humans and other animals forests and rivers and mountains every day they are in office and never seem to notice it. They eat and drink devastation. Women of the world, Women of the world, Is this devastation Us? Would we kill whole continents for oil (or anything else) rather than limit the number of consumer offspring we produce and learn how to make our own fire? Democratic Womanism. Democratic Socialist Womanism. A system of governance we can dream and imagine and build together. One that recognizes at least six thousand years of brutally enforced complicity in the assassination of Mother Earth, but foresees six thousand years ahead of us when we will not submit. What will we need? A hundred years at least to plan: (five hundred will be handed us gladly when the planet is scared enough) in which circles of women meet, organize ourselves, and, allied with men brave enough to stand with women, men brave enough to stand with women, nurture our planet to a degree of health. And without apology —- (impossible to make a bigger mess than has been made already) -— devote ourselves, heedless of opposition, to tirelessly serving and resuscitating Our Mother ship and with gratitude for Her care of us worshipfully commit to rehabilitating it. -Alice Walker Above poem borrowed from Democracy Now website.
0 Comments
|