To My Mother

[WilliamPitt]

Catholic Bishop William Lori, the Rev. Matthew Harrison, Dr. Ben Mitchell, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik and Craig Mitchell are sworn in during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on February 16, 2012. (Photo: Luke Sharrett / The New York Times)

To My Mother
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Saturday 18 February 2012

Dear Mom:

First of all, I want to wish you a happy birthday, and tell you how much I love you. For as long as I can remember, it has been you and me, in the world and for the world, even when that world has been against us. You taught me everything I know that is worth knowing. You are the strongest, smartest, bravest, most moral person I have ever known. You are woman, and boy howdy, have I heard you roar.

I grew up watching you pursue your career in a working world dominated by powerful men, and I remember all the times they tried to break you with their misogyny and sexism and belittling attitudes...and I remember you bulldozing them right out of the road: blade down, eyes flashing, talent ablaze and strength overpowering. That was you, is you, will always be you.

I know you pride yourself on being up on current events - it must be in the genes - but I wanted to make sure you are fully up to speed on what The Bastards have been up to lately, because they have been busy in a way I have never actually seen before in my life. Every part of what has been happening in American politics of late is entirely familiar, the stuff of old nightmares, but I have never experienced such a barrage of unrestrained hatred, filth and nonsense to compare with this. It's as if The Bastards took 100 years worth of anti-woman sentiment, condensed it into a dense nugget of hate-crack, and hit the pipe. Hard.

The only way to do this right is just to show you. The best place to start is "Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing After Republicans Prevent Women From Testifying."

(snip)

The thing is, Mom, I get the sense that a few different influences have been unleashed within the ranks of the Right as far as all this goes. See, when the allies of Planned Parenthood stomped a mudhole in the Komen Foundation for messing with cancer screening, it caused a massive reaction within the ranks of the penis-firsters. How dare those abortionists tell us what for? WHAAARGARBLE!!!

That's part of it, but I think there's some deep-seated racism involved here, too. These people want to ban contraception because they want white people to breed prolifically, so as to overcome what they see as an onslaught by the Brown Ones against All That Is Right And True In America. After all, one of those shady, shaded dudes already sits in the White House, and he doesn't even have a proper birth certificate, right? Right?

Or something.

Beyond that is some nascent Taliban-esqe hatred of women that goes back to the Old Testament, something that is rooted in a deep-seated sense of insecurity these people feel that drives them to try to subjugate half the voting population in an election year. For the record, I have seen plenty of stupidity in my time, but this latest upheaval absolutely takes the cake.

I think they might be desperate...desperate to try and steer the national discourse away from the economic issues they can't possibly win on, and towards the social warfare they have deployed with so much success over the years. Choosing birth control as the battlefield, however, strikes me as a tactical error so great as to put Hitler's decision to open a second front in deep shade.

It could also be simple ignorance. After all, a fair portion of these knuckleheads don't believe in dinosaurs because they aren't mentioned in the Bible, don't believe in science generally, and have come to believe that the best thing for America is to revert to some "Leave It To Beaver" fantasy about gender roles in society.

You and I know better, don't we, Mom? You went to work when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and carved a swath through your chosen profession by dint of your superior skills and intellect...but you left a lot of pieces of yourself on that battlefield, because too many men thought you were getting above your place, ahead of yourself, and tried to kick you back down to where they thought you belonged. You won - you always do - but it cost you dearly. I remember. I will never, ever forget.

I have to admit to being stunned, in shock with all this, because of all the things I ever expected to deal with, take on and overcome, it never occurred to me that fighting the war you already won all over again would be something I would have to contend with in this brave year of 2012...but here we are. Part of me wants to lay back and let these dunderheads crash around in a frothing fury, wants to let them destroy themselves...but no.

No.

Now is the time to rise up, point at this mess, and say in a voice too loud to ignore, "This is why these people are not to be trusted with power. This is why they must go."

You fought this war and won it, Mom. The Bastards want to try and re-take the battlefield. I will not let it happen, and I am not alone.

I love you with all of my heart, Mom.

Don't worry. We got this.

Your loving son,

William

The whole thing: http://www.truth-out.org/my-mother/1329443930

[hlthe2b]

1. Thank you for this... for all the women. n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Nice-recommended...

[madmom]

3. ...

[WillyT]

4. Absolutely Perfect !!! - K & R !!!

Thank you for this!!!

[shraby]

5. Thank you Will from this old gramma. The bastids are going down..in spades, never to see

the light of day for many many moons. It's time the ones who walk in skinny heels and dance backward to make their presence known. They have before and can again.
We are not and never have been second class citizens. Our kind raised em, we can let them learn how to behave in polite company.
Just give us a week or two to organize our counter assault on the war on women.

[lunatica]

6. I just adopted you

Although my son is on the same page as you.

[Ohio Dem]

7. Nice.

Really well done.

[Hutzpa]

8. Thanks Will.

this is really despicable, there is no other way to describe the attack on women. The repugs have decided to go after women in the act of winning an election. This has been their mantra for so long that my hope is that this will finally put the last nail to their demise. If it's not racism, it's about guns, if it's not guns, it's about genders, they have nothing to offer as an alternative
to what can move this country forward, but to continue on the same playbook year after year
in the destruction of common values that holds common people together.

Every policies the republicans have written is about creating divisions and aggressive destruction to the progress of minority rights and existence. I based this statement purely on the fact of
not finding any positive legislation that poor people and ethnic minority can point to as a source
of inspiration, none, knowing that it is easy to see why they continue the charge on destroying
infrastructures that caters to the poor and ethnic minority.

[LiberalLoner]

9. Thank you, Will

I know your mother is always with you and I'm certain she is especially proud of you for this column.

[Little Star]

10. k&r

[The Blue Flower]

11. This is simply the last division left to exploit

It will backfire explosively and beautifully.

[Honeycombe8]

12. Here, here! Your mama raised you right!

But my guess is you were always a pretty good boy, anyway.

It's always heartwarming to hear a man say something positive on behalf of women. It happens, but not that often. Thanks!

[tavalon]

18. Are we talking about the same Will Pitt?

I suspect he was a tough kid to raise, one that few would be up to the task for, but Raven is obviously as strong willed as Will, so there's that.

[Honeycombe8]

27. Who is Raven?nt

[tavalon]

29. Will's mom

I'm fairly sure somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I know her real name, but around here, I stick with usernames unless asked otherwise. Raven is the wind beneath Will's wings, to quote an old song.

[Honeycombe8]

30. I'm gonna guess Raven thinks Will has always been a special, and good, boy. Good in one

sense of the word, according to a mom.

[tavalon]

31. Oh, yeah, she clearly adores him

And is rightly proud of him.

[varelse]

13. thank you

[LiberalEsto]

14. Thank you, Will and Raven

You are inspirations to us all

[bigtree]

15. beautiful

she should be proud

[NMDemDist2]

16. to your mom

And thanks for being a wonderful voice on DU too!

[tavalon]

17. I see Raven here from time to time

She doesn't speak as much as you do, but she is clearly wisdom filled and you didn't fall far from that tree. If you also got your temper from her, she must be a force of nature! LOL

[WilliamPitt]

19. You have no idea.

[tavalon]

21. I suspected as much

But she doesn't get banned on a regular basis, so her lawyerly training must have tempered her temper, eh?

[Robb]

23. You can bribe a lot of people with tomato cheese pies.

I'm not sayin' that's what happened, just, you know, sayin'.

[tavalon]

24. Lol

[tavalon]

20. I've been trying to come up with a pithy response to this atrocity you

speak of, but the only thing that comes to mind is "you motherfuckers!".

[CaliforniaPeggy]

22. My dear Will...

If I'd had a son like you...

I didn't; I had two beautiful, strong, competent, intelligent, loving, compassionate daughters, who fill my heart with love and delight...

You have really nailed this!

I know your mom is so proud of you...

I know I am.

[WilliamPitt]

25. (((hug)))

[tavalon]

26. I thought I had forgotten to rec this

I had though, so here's a

[malaise]

28. Beautiful

Thanks

Rec

[JitterbugPerfume]

32. Happy Birthday Raven

If you did nothing else in your life(and you did plenty) you managed to bring up one helluva son!

[Bozita]

33. Outstanding! ... One of your very best, Will!

[mwdem]

34. I love this.

Raven must be so proud to have a son like you. As you are so proud to have a mother like her. Spot on!

[SunsetDreams]

35. Beautiful, I know your Mom must be proud of you! K&R

[rustydog]

36. You always nail it down tight. All I have been doing for the past week is curse loudly.

Your words are clear, concise and to the point.

I want to throw open the window, lean out and yell: "I am not going to take it any more!"

Thank you

[Remember Me]

37. Do you want to know what's at the core of the hatred of women?

It's complicated and many, many will dismiss it out of hand. But I've been around and looking and reading and intuiting about this for a long time, and I believe I know whereof I speak. It's not an original thought of mine, and I didn't believe it when I first encountered it. But the longer I live -- and look -- the more I can see it's true.

If you or anyone reading it doesn't quite get it, that's fine. Just let it lay there on the outskirts of your mind and ponder it from time to time. Maybe it'll never make sense, maybe it'll be incredible sense some day.

They are afraid of women, especially our ability to give life -- which they also equate (at a primal and subconscious level) with the ability to take life away too. You can see this fear mixed with a sort of respect for our ability to give life -- and our ability to "bleed without dying" which was considered simply magical -- in some of the rituals and rites that men devised for themselves in primitive tribal situations (cutting themselves so that they too bleed, for example).

I am quite sure, when you get to the Catholics (and I grew up Catholic so I feel I know whereof I speak here too or at the very least can speak about it) - - I believe they resent and fear women's innate spiritual power. Then too, there's that nasty business of The Burning Times, which marks the Church to this day with deepest shame for its brutality and murderous misogyny. There is a huge blot on the conscience still present and involved, and shame upon the Soul of the Church which the Church can never recover from until it admits women in the ranks of the Clergy. But there's the paradox! How can they? The very word Priestess conjures up all their sins from that terrible, blood-stained era that still strikes terror in the race-memory of both women and of modern-day Wiccans. Shudder. I don't even like talking about it.

[H2O Man]

38. Way Recommended!

Damn, man, you keep out-doing yourself. Extremely impressive!

[Horse with no Name]

39. You made me cry.

Thank you!

[MarianJack]

40. Beautiful, WilliamPitt!

K&R!

PEACE!

[FourScore]

41. That's the best thing you've EVER written!

It could've been written for my Mom, too. In fact, I am emailing it to her.

Thanks Will!

[susanr516]

42. This mother and grandmother

is proud to be the 100th rec.

[11 Bravo]

43. You've gained a new fan today, Will. I shared this with my own 85 year old mother and ...

she teared up. Mom was one of the earliest female computer programmers working for the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS). She struggled her entire career against a male dominated hierarchy which did not consider her to be of equal value to her male co-workers (including even those men who reported to her). A life-long Republican, she also told me that this current crop of over-reaching misogynistic Republicans make her "want to puke".
And finally, Will, she reserved her highest accolade for you. You must be "a fine young man and a good son". Trust me, she doesn't throw that one around lightly!

[WilliamPitt]

44. Sunday kick

[WilliamPitt]

45. One last

kick.