It’s going to be Thanksgiving in the United States in a couple of weeks, and that got me to thinking about the people who worked hard and made sacrifices to make sure “we the people” means everybody. Given the way the current regime is trying to destroy those rights, it seems important to remember how we got them and what we need to do to keep them.
I’m thinking about these things in the United States because that’s the history I know best and it’s also where rights are under attack right now. But you can find similar histories in many countries.
Me, I thank the suffragists who made it possible for me to vote and led to many more women in positions of authority. That happened 105 years ago now, which may seem like ancient history if you were born in this century, but doesn’t seem that long ago at all if you’re my age.
I mean, my grandmothers were born before women could vote in the United States. My mother was born just three years afterwards.
I also thank the predecessors of the suffragists, the women who organized for their rights back in the 1800s, often working alongside abolitionists. I looked up the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and discovered that Frederick Douglass – who was the only African American at the convention – argued strongly for the inclusion of women’s right to vote, which was why they included it in their statement.
Douglass’s efforts in this regard are just one reason I think the abolitionist and the later civil rights movement were critical to rights that I have, and that we all share these days.
It’s not really freedom if it’s not freedom for all. The activism that finally implemented some of the rights set out in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments not only expanded the freedom of Black people, but expanded the rights for everyone.
I also thank unions for my freedoms. I’m personally grateful to the News Guild, my union, which enabled me to retire in reasonable comfort, but I’m grateful in general to all those people who fought for workers’ rights over many years, and who are still hanging in the fight right now.
Our unions in the United States were weakened – compare them to those in Europe, where they often shut things down – even before the current regime came in. But they have done a lot and I think they will do more.
Now in thanking these people, I’m not blind to their shortcomings. Too many unions discriminated against women and minorities over the years. A few were corrupt.
And by the way, while women got the vote in 1920, most Black women in the U.S. didn’t get to exercise that right until the 1960s. The suffragists weren’t all that interested in expanding the franchise beyond white women.
But we still wouldn’t be as far along as we are right now without those efforts.
Anytime you find an expansion of rights, you find people who worked for that for decades and more. Take marriage equality, which was built on efforts by gay and lesbian activists.
Take the fact that we have curb cuts at our intersections and ramps to buildings. That was the work of activists for the disabled, as was the Americans With Disabilities Act, which required agencies and businesses to make their properties accessible.
Again, much of this is still flawed. It’s not like we’ve won all the freedoms we ought to have or that the solutions we’ve gained are close to perfect. But we had made some decent progress before the current regime got in and started dismantling everything.
I’m pretty worried about the attacks on trans people right now, attacks that are rooted in the same misogyny that denied women the vote and economic opportunities. Black people and women are being pushed out of careers. Teachers are being fired for teaching about gender inequality. And the disabled and people with serious health issues are being told they’re “unfit.”
We can’t let all the work that was done to develop these freedoms go to waste.
Let me remind you that this wasn’t and isn’t easy work. Most activists are non-violent, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t met with violence. People died for your rights and freedoms, and not just in wars. The people who get killed in those efforts — most of whom were not killing others — are true heroes.
So while we’re thanking people for what they do, let’s thank the people who put their lives on the line so that we could vote, make a living, get an education, get health care, get a decent place to live.
And try to do our part to make sure those things continue and that everyone gets their share.