Thank you, Cecile Richards, for an inspirational speech at Brown University’s 120 Years of Women Celebration and for sharing Marge Piercy’s words.  I left the weekend feeling moved, empowered, and just enough angry to recommit myself to fighting the injustices that still exist in our world.

 

Alone, you can fight,

 

you can refuse, you can

 

take what revenge you can

 

but they roll over you.

 

But two people fighting

 

back to back can cut through

 

a mob, a snake-dancing file

 

can break a cordon, an army

 

can meet an army.

 

Two people can keep each other

 

sane, can give support, conviction,

 

love, massage, hope, sex.

 

Three people are a delegation,

 

a committee, a wedge. With four

 

you can play bridge and start

 

an organization. With six

 

you can rent a whole house,

 

eat pie for dinner with no

 

seconds, and hold a fund raising party.

 

A dozen makes a demonstration.

 

A hundred fill a hall.

 

A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;

 

ten thousand, power and your own paper;

 

a hundred thousand, your own media;

 

ten million, your own country.

 

It goes on one at a time,

 

It starts when you care

 

to act, it starts when you do

 

it again after they said no,

 

it starts when you say We

 

and know who you mean, and each

 

day you mean one more.

 

We can fight sexual violence together, one at a time, until we have our own newsletter, media, and country.