of this article I read this am from Medea Benjamin, in The Nation:

Whenever I travel to international gatherings to talk about the war in Iraq, economic development and women's rights, the question I get asked most frequently is: "Where are the women in the United States? Why aren't they rising up?"

I hear it from women in Africa, who have lost funding for their health clinics because of the Bush Administration's ban on even talking about abortion; from Iraqi women, who are suffering the double oppression of occupation and rising fundamentalism; from European women, who wonder how we can tolerate the crumbling of our meager social services; and from Latina women opposed to unresponsive governments that represent a tiny elite.[...]

A few months back, I asked a group of international women for advice. Two issues kept cropping up: persistence and solidarity. "It took us decades to overthrow the oppressive apartheid regime," said one woman from South Africa, "and one of the things that kept us going was solidarity from the outside world--people getting arrested at South African embassies abroad, refusing to buy South African products, sending us moral support." The others agreed. "The struggle has to come from within," said a woman who had spent years organizing landless peasants in Brazil, "and you in the US have more freedom to organize than we ever had. But US women need to feel the support of their sisters overseas, just like we have had tremendous international support."

Thank you Marisa for sharing this article. I would have missed it if not for you. All of it is so true and disturbing and touching but two words stick out for me, peristence and solidarity.

If we can take those two words and use them as a mantra we repeat over and over perhaps we'll have the courage, the strength and the tenacity to awaken the women in this country.

I'm not sure how much worse it has to be for the women to stand up but I do know the women of Our Word are ready and willing. We gather together to give one another support, comfort and strength. It's time we take it to the streets.