What if every woman in America went on strike. Today. Indefinitely. No woman shows up for their fast- food job, their nighttime cleaning job, teaching job, daycare, nursing, doctoring, lawyering, retail clerking, banking, government and social service, bus driving….
EVERY WOMAN GOES HOME and stays there: to take care of her children, her aging parents, her grandchildren, her husband on disability, her toddler without access to preschool, her teenager under home detention or detox or covid quarantine. She picks up the clutter. She washes the dishes. She catches up with the mountain of laundry. She shops for groceries in several places to find the most economical buys. She devises a budget and holds everyone in check from their anti-social impulses. She shows up at school to make sure the kids are being respected, encouraged, and educated in the essentials, like reading.
You know. She does all these things (and more) that someone managing a home and family has to take care of. In the absence of childcare, hired help, home health care assistance, a domestic partner, and simple access to routine, urgent, and emergency medical care, she has to do it all. Not going out “to work” will free her time to perform these vital activities on society’s behalf.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALL THE WOMEN STAY HOME?
Today, with the threatened removal of the protection of Roe v. Wade, WOMEN once again will be weighted beyond human endurance by the burden of Old White Male assumptions about how things in real life get done.
Let it be said: NO ONE believes that abortion is a good thing. However, the personal freedom to make a decision about giving birth belongs to every woman without government interference.
The government seems perfectly happy not to provide for child care and health care and public education, even when supporting families and a healthy population would seem favorable for the function of…everything.
Use this exercise in imagination to notice that individuals are not independent entities. Neither are families, neighborhoods, cities, states, and nations. We are one human family. We function by free choice, if at all possible, in the entanglement of life.
As the saying goes, “The truth will set you free.” And the ultimate truth is: We are loved without boundaries by the creator of the universe, and we are called to love others the same way.
If we don’t, and choose to keep destroying each other, I’m certain that the creator has infinite other plans.
Not to mention the possibilities of a Lysistrata strike…
It is ironic and tragic that those who are so against women’s rights are also in favor of executing a person today in Missouri.
Yes, yes, and yes. But now we know, don’t we: all the matters is that children should be born. Then we will leave their mothers with no support, and their schools in constant danger from the all-precious Second Amendment. Thoughts and prayers should cover it, don’t you think? Thoughts and prayers.
The same government that should stay outta your healthcare business (as it relates to your reproductive rights) should be providing health care for everything else.
The same government that should not be dictating whether or not you may have an abortion should be allowed to dictate that you wear a mask and not receive any non-government-approved therapeutics.
The same government that insists that Black Lives Matter tells us that 40% of the abortions performed are on Black women– 20 million Black babies aborted since 1973. (Would any of these babies now be taxpaying citizens who are supporting the government/Social Security?)
Should the Supreme Court’s decision as drafted by Justice Alito be upheld, abortion will no longer be a matter controlled by the Federal government… it will be up to the individual states to decide what to do.
What other plans would you surmise that the Creator has for us if we “choose to keep destroying each other” or, in this case, our unborn babies?
[As you know, from 1973-197? I was an abortion counselor who enabled pregnant women (usually very young women) to secure safe, legal abortions. On more than one occasion, I was a witness to the procedures. I have since seen abortion become not so much an act of desperation, but a “routine” method of birth control. And abortions that were once performed no later than 12 weeks can now occur right up to the day of birth! No woman who does not want a baby should be forced to have one. Yes there ARE extreme circumstances, but generally women should take advantage of community health resources and learn/practice contraception so as not to make a baby in the first place. It IS about CHOICE and I think women can and should make better choices about managing their reproductive rights.]
Dear Barbara: Thank you so much for your blog. I read this “Modest Proposal.” my first thought was as your first commenter said, Lysistrata. The commentator before me was annoying. I’m sure that you will respond as you do and have in the past. I honor your words.
The topic of the day reminds us that not all questions are easy, and, so often, all the answers make us uncomfortable. And sometimes the uncomfortable answers change with time and circumstance, and remain uncomfortable. We are taught that, as adults, we are expected to make difficult choices. And no one ever mentions that choice is not always resolution–it often means more uncomfortable choices.
My mother used to say that “people don’t have their opinions because they think that they are wrong.” I would add that they don’t make their choices because they are easy, either.
Most people are doing the best they can for themselves and their families. Most people act with good will most of the time. Charity demands that we assume that people who choose things we would not choose are doing so for good reasons.
And charity, too, makes us uncomfortable. Mostly, because it is hard to do.