Too much? That’s by the French cartoonist Corinne Rey. She was present at the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015 and witnessed the murder of several cartoonists as she hid under a desk.
I don’t think it’s too much.
I used to argue with my religious friends in college about abortion. I wasn’t trying to make headway, and I knew even then that no headway would happen. I took everything for granted then. That we could all just good-humoredly argue about things. That I could accompany them to Bible studies where they prayed for good grades on their history exams, and I felt nothing but curiosity and wonder (raised Catholic, Jesus was not my friend). I don’t remember feeling rage, such was my privilege. It was the early 1980s, when the Republicans were genuflecting to Ronald Reagan, gathering up the earnest Christians. People like those girls in Bible study were the unwitting mask for what would happen steadily, direly, over the next forty years. I wish I’d been less curious, more angry.
I feel rage now. I am enraged.
How about some Marcus Aurelius? I know he was a Roman Emperor, but he can be strangely provocative and resonant during times like these. I randomly plucked a few of my favorites from his Meditations:
Evil: the same old thing.
No matter what happens, keep this in mind: It’s the same old thing, from one end of the world to the other. It fills the history books, ancient and modern, and the cities, and the houses, too. Nothing new at all.
Familiar, transient.
And this one:
Is my intellect up to this? If so, then I’ll put it to work, like a tool provided by nature. And if it isn’t, then I’ll turn the job over to someone who can do better — unless I have no choice.
Or I do the best I can with it, and collaborate with whoever can make me use it, to do what the community needs done. Because whatever I do — alone or with others — can aim at one thing only: what squares with those requirements.
Finally, this:
No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. Like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, “No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.”
If you need more inspiration, start researching the Jane Collective. Watch the documentary.
If you want to do stuff, these organizations can direct you:
National Network of Abortion Funds
As the great poet Mary Oliver wrote:
“And I say to my heart: rave on.”
Shine on, Elizabeth. Thank you for the Marcus Aurelius. Imagine having him leading your country. If only . . .
I am commenting from a far away country where on the same day as this happened in the US, a nasty law that used to criminalise gynecologist who offered online and in person information on abortion methods was thrown out by a parliament majority.
And I also lived in catholic Ireland in the darkest times (1980s) when the church ruled supreme and women died because of that.
However, what is happening in your country now is far far worse that what the priests did in Ireland in those days (and still attempt today), because in the US from what I can see/read, it's all inclusive now, miscarriages, online searches, social media activities, aiding, helping, driving a car with a pregnant woman towards the border. . . The white men's revenge. This is Gilead. But remember always: we, the women of the world are watching and we are getting ready.