Women's History & The Park Church
Rachel Dworkin, archivist at the Booth Library of the Chemung County Historical Society, invited me last month to come and record an oral history snippet about the Women's March Elmira events sponsored by The Park Church, 2019 to 2022. In preparation, I looked through photos and emails and a wonderful book that I had been given documenting the first Women's March held in Washington DC (and all over the world) on January 21, 2017 - the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump in his first term. How the world of advocacy for women has changed in just eight short years. It hardly seems like I live in the same nation.
Mary Jane Eckel and I traveled together to attend the March 5, 2018 Women's March in Seneca Falls - an overwhelming outpouring of antagonism after Trump's first year in office. Pink pussy hats were everywhere, along with pink signs supporting safe and legal abortion access and Planned Parenthood. "This is What Democracy Looks Like," we chanted as the march wound its way through the historic village of Seneca Falls, site of the first National Woman's Rights Convention in July of 1848. I wonder what news had reached our foremothers at the First Independent Congregational Church of Elmira - the name our founders had given their breakaway abolitionist congregation in 1846?
Mary Jane and I talked all the way home about how we should organize a march in Elmira, from the church (and the newly constructed gazebo stage in Wisner Park) north to Elmira College that could draw attention to contemporary issues and to local women's history. We choose a date - January 20, 2019 - the second anniversary of the original Women's March - which had been the single largest protest in world history - 5 million around the world (3.3 million in the US) on all seven continents! Our team worked for ten months creating collaborations, recruiting speakers, planning logistics - and we were ready!
And then a blizzard came and we had to postpone the whole thing for a weekbut we pulled it off - gathering with our pussy hats and protest signs to hear six local women present brief remarks (it was cold!) and then we warmed our selves with a walk north to the college where hot chocolate was waiting for us in Cowles Hall. Plus a dozen organizations were there tabling about their programs in support of justice and we all enjoyed a lecture on women's history from retired history professor, Dr. Myra Glenn.
For 2020, we chose to set the date in March in celebration of Women's History Month and hoped for a little warmer weather. Community Arts of Elmira created an exhibition called "Empower 2020" and we added shuttle busses to help marchers get there. It was well attended and publicized. We were psyched for the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote - well as least white women.
And then the world seemed to close down with the Covid pandemic. And then Ruth Bader Ginsberg died in September. Then a full year later (October 2, 2021) the church sponsored a Women's March Rally in Support of Abortion Access. And then nine months after that (June 24, 2022) the Supreme Court ruled on the Dobbs Decision overturning Roe vs. Wade.
As the mid-term elections of November 2022 approached, a second rally was planned to join sister events across the country of the "Blue Wave" to platform both women's justice issues and a push for voter registration. And as they say "Elections have consequences."
But who could have foreseen what last November's election consequences could become? Are you ready to pick up those protest signs again yet?
Thank God I have you and The Park Church community. Thankfully, Jenny PS.
I was asked what I meant by "fascism" after worship last month, so I offer this list of early warning signs for your consideration:
A powerful sense of nationalism.
Patriotism revolves around the defeat of a common threat or cause.
Disdain for human rights as unworthy of consideration or respect.
Identification of enemies / scapegoats as a unifying cause.
Government controlled mass media.
Glorification and ascendency of the military.
A fixation on national security.
Power for corporations is preserved and protected.
Power for labor unions is suppressed.
Rampant sexism, cronyism and corruption.
Obsession with crime and punishment.
Disdain for intellectuals, science and the arts.
Religion and government are intertwined.
Fraudulent elections.
Alternate truths.
Defying the Constitution and its safeguards.
"The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.