Day One

DAY ONE

Another day, another year, another Women’s History Month. A lot happened since we were last here, and I hope I can manage to get through this month without crying, or having a nervous breakdown - to quote Mick Jagger, “My 19th Nervous Breakdown”. Some of those rock stars really knew what they were talking about! Still, I keep plugging away, keeping my promise, meeting you here for yet another month of gripes, complaints, and hopefully, some occasional good news.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

I hoped I would never have to say this again – President Trump. But here we are, a brand-new Women’s History Month, and the president is declaring a war on all things promoting women’s equality – as well as equality for other groups that do not include white males, or, as one of his cabinet said, ‘competent white males’. If only…

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying there are no competent white males. They do not appear to inhabit the Trump administration. He is surrounded by a gang of men who never matured beyond the stage of juvenile delinquent. They are demonstrating this by rapidly dismantling the government that all of us rely on, partially out of ignorance and partially out of malice.

In this effort, too many women have been his accomplices. Women who cheered when he loaded the Supreme Court with anti-abortion judges, and who had no problem with him saying he would just ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’. For these women, Trump is simply behaving in a masculine manner, and is clearing the government of those who aren’t fit to govern. I plan to devote a great many columns this year to women who work against women. Perhaps by the end of the month, we will have figured out why.

First, I would like to get one thing clear: statistics. Hey, don’t go! It’s too soon! And I’m not going to get all technical on you, just a few basic facts. If you meet a white woman on the street, do not assume she is a Trump voter. Your odds are about even that she voted for Harris. That is about the same as the percentage of Hispanic men that voted for Harris. Even among older white women, the percentage of Trump voters is slightly over half. White women appear to be divided almost down the middle politically. If the woman is urban, the odds that she voted Harris are nearly double the odds that she voted for Trump.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can proceed with Women’s History Month 2025. I plan to keep my promise to continue writing, and it is now more important than ever, but it is also more difficult than ever. It is easy to give in to despair, to turn off all news feeds, shut off our phones, our televisions, and unsubscribe to our newspapers (if we take one). That’s the wrong reaction. It may seem like there is little to nothing we can do that will change anything, and that may be true, but I want to at least go down fighting. That might mean counseling for many of us (the nearly half of all Americans that voted for Harris). It might mean finding a good support group, one that doesn’t include Trump voters (which lets out some chunks of my family). It might mean taking breaks every now and then, turning off the light for a nap, or doing something you enjoy. Don’t let despair cause you to give up those things – it has almost done that with me, but fortunately my husband keeps me going. (See? Support group…or support person, in my case.)

Before women lose all the rights they worked so hard to gain, before the work done by our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers is undone, we need to get out there and show Trump we mean business. We don’t need women’s marches; he ignored those. We need things he’ll listen to, and can’t ignore. I’m open to suggestions about what that will be.