S is for Stewards of Suffrage; Subscribers Wanted.
Image of the Phillis Wheatley Club, 1905 courtesy of the Library of Congress
This poem was originally shared on August 26th, 2022, in honor of Women’s Equality Day. The context for why it was written was posted on LinkedIn, which you can read here.
The heart of the matter: WE have never truly had women’s equality. Unless we start backing up, bring everyone together, and ensure no one is left out, we’ll continue to lose.
Black women helped all women fight for their right to vote. They were not granted the same access. In most cases, white women did nothing after they secured their own rights, which is why we are where we are today.
This is not why we #DoTheWork. It’s not because we are losing. We do it because their freedom has never been one. It is a moral imperative that we fight for Black lives to matter, first and foremost. To exist. Period. As Gloria Steinem said, “If you don’t vote, you don’t exist.”
Intersectionality or Bust.
S is for Suffragettes who fought for our rights to be free.
Why we must suffer and struggle for rights will forever baffle me.
S is for a Suffragist Spirit, but this time intersectional-y.
For remembering how white women believed that their rights hinged on leaning into White Supremacy.
S is for Stressing the goals: anti-racism, reparations, pay equity.
On Women’s Equality Day, we must acknowledge our full American history.
S is for saviorism, fake DEI & “investing” in ESG,
for performative “steps” sucking our souls, as cities sink into the seas.
S is for the SDGs stated intentions, “doing good” without measuring or accountability.
It’s $h!t Ads from Shell: “We believe the future of energy is carbon free” without actual sustainability.
S is for Sorry, you may not see sky; the smoke is a bit out of hand.
The wildfires are taking our summers, and hurting our precious land.
S is for bravely taking a Stand against greenwashing or a racist Maga fan.
No more pipelines as a concession when agreeing to a green economic plan.
S is for senior citizens fighting for benefits, caretakers dealing with Medicare.
A Senate making money from seedy pharma lobbyists taking more than their share.
S is for Solutions Journalism, sharing ideas, some answers and not just the drama.
Shift stories and highlight do-gooders and solves; do not just add to our trauma.
S is for Senators fine with inflation from tax-funded healthcare and salaries, who ended kid tax credits, rent moratoriums, investing in more oil refineries.
S is for Judge Thomas’s spouse, lying right through her teeth.
S is stealing from constituents, then calling them greedy for wanting debt relief.
S is for (supposedly) saving “small businesses” but no PPP loans for us!
Meanwhile 18 Billionaires + 250 HNWI Americans took money in the first round of stimulus.
S is for super pacs, fake stop the steal, gerrymandering votes from the left.
S is for sundown towns still in existence, which truly is scary as F.
S is for Stocks and the market-obsessed S&P.
Despite what The Sun or a broker will tell you ≠ THE Economy.
S is for strikes, for unions, and ESOPs.
For Sociocracy and having a say.
Salud to a Future with worker-owned coops,
for labor rights STARTING TODAY.
S is for solopreneurs, gig workers, and employment and starting to work for yourself…
…instead of “The Man ” who treats you like crap, for another award on his shelf.
S is for Social entrepreneurship, starring people, planet, and purpose.
For designing a world to work and to live, and “Nothing for us, without us.”
S is for spectrums, for differences and gifts, for all of our neurodivergence.
For accommodations, access, support without guilt from anyone’s slight inconvenience.
S is for the Single ladies, 2 Spirits, Sex workers — screw what you think of our “lifestyle.”
For Social network execs cutting the crap; stop silencing, and shadowbans, shutting down profiles.
S is for sick, sad, and stressed, but someone who cares, who sees you and all you are feeling.
For highly Sensitive, sympathy, and sensory stuff, for sound baths and somatic healing.
S is for shivering, swearing in vain, when SCOTUS turned back the clock. For shuttering, shaking and screaming rage because these a$$holes do not give a f&$k.
S is for Shock from the SEC: 99% of all wealth is managed by only white men.
For VCs investors supposedly “trying” as our Startups are effed once again.
S is for Sovereignty, body autonomy, and liberating all of humanity.
For sticking to all 39 human rights, and declaring a life filled with dignity.
S is for Statements, for treaties and charters; PR used for State-Sanctioned Stealing.
For Scammers and liars in powerful States, exempt from the rules they keep dealing.
S is for Suddenly Seymour, who (literally) gave his last drop,
to a blood-Sucking Space plant, for his job in a shop…so he could have a job, see his one friend, get dental care, and somewhere to sleep that was safe, all while dealing with a toxic, all-controlling boss — see anti-semitism — and a murderous, vampiric succulent…but I digress!
S is for skid row from the sixties, segregation, redlines separating by race.
And white flight Suburbans burning masks, banning books, and School boards upping their pace.
S is for the Shoah, for Slavery, for slaughtering children, despite Supremacist denying.
For the South of the globe, not at fault, just as screwed; high temperatures — waters keep rising.
S is for supremacy capitalism, sexist patriarchy, for species already extinct.
Someday we might see the collapse, but for now we sit just on the brink.
S is for someone please Stop all this shit, and hear all that we have to say:
It’s about goddamn time to protect EVERYONE,
immigrants, disabled, Black, Brown, or gay.
S is for securing our safety. Remember you said you’d stack SCOTUS?
Okay then, now go get your effing church paws, and laws off of my goddamn sacred uterus.
S is for securing the rights for everyone, regardless of sex or gender, for Women’s equality day.
Push to include all of us in the Constitution once and for all and pass the ERA.
S is for Slavery, Imperialism, Indigenous Schools, for stories we weren’t told.
Instead Stars and Stripes forever — and a city on a hill of gold.
S is for sleep, for a semblance of “normal” and for freedoms some of us had.
For the silly hope anti vaxxers and pandemic parenting won’t always be this bad.
S is for something you can’t say out loud because it causes anxiety, fear: in 2 to 3 years our failing democracy’s progress may very well disappear.
S is for sabbath, not always on Sunday; for days filled with rest, sleep, and love.
For finding joy in whoever you are; not giving a fuck when your judged.
S is for solidarity, sisterhood, socialist policies. Democracy’s all in or all out.
For justice, and equitable, stable economies; EVERYONE votes if votes really count.
S is for songs stuck in our head—saying lift EVERY single f&%king VOICE and SING.
S for finally Securing the civil rights for us all…
Then freedom might actually ring.
———
Emily Weltman is a writer, social entrepreneur, neurodivergent intersectional feminist. She’s founder of Collective Flow Consulting, co-founder of Rage 2 Rainbows, and recently launched the FLOWLab, a community for creators, solopreneurs, and social entrepreneurs seeking resources and support.
For more on gender, racial, and economic justice, and reinventing the workplace to be accessible and humane: subscribe + follow + sign up for the Hot List.
By Emily O. Weltman on August 27, 2022.
Canonical link Exported from Medium on February 21, 2023.
