psssst Tessa... |
Ani's song, by the way, goes like this: "My mother went campaigning door to door and holding to her hand was me / Yeah I was just a girl in a room full of women licking stamps and laughing / I remember the feeling of community brewing, of democracy happening."
Tessa's not going to remember that her dad and I took her to a pro-choice rally on Saturday or that we walked around the Tennessee Capitol chanting and waving signs while she was strapped to the front of me.
But I will remember. Because talk about goosebumps -- I had them almost the whole time. I'm sort of blissfully unaware of a lot of political goings-on, but one thing I can't let myself tune out is the abortion debate, which is raging on in Tennessee. Last week my home state passed SJR-127, a constitutional amendment that will be on our ballot in 2014 and that, if passed, will nullify a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court decision that says the state constitution guarantees a woman's right to an abortion. Tennessee also managed to pass a budget that blocks any Title X funding (federal family-planning funds) from going to Planned Parenthood -- effective immediately.
I don't really know that carrying around a cardboard-box-turned-DIY-sign will change anything, but it's better than nothing. And one day Tessa will remember.