Lady Power

Face Number 2

     Greys Anatomy. Nothing else in the world has such an uncanny ability to pull me away from the things that I need to do. On the first weekend of April I am to give a speech at the state meeting for AAUW. My speech topic is to be on women and how they are in poverty and how we can change the world. I simply loved this topic. I honestly believe that there is nothing in this world as powerful as a woman who has realized her true abilities. Our society trains us to believe that we are the weak frail damsels in distress and that we need to wait to be rescued. However I believe that a woman who has realized her true potential is a force to be reckoned with indeed. Woman can shake the earth when so needed. Have you ever heard those stories about women who pick a car up when it lands on their babies? When I was a little girl my favorite movie of all time was Mulan, second only to Lion King. I loved Mulan because it was the story of a Japanese girl who stole her fathers armor and went to lead in battle, but had to disguise herself as a man because otherwise she could get in a lot of trouble for being a girl. Her strength and determination always inspired me. A couple years after my introduction to Mulan I found another female hero. It was while we were visiting a huge battle ship known as the SS Jeremiah O'Brien. It was on this trip that my mother bought me a shirt with the blazing headline of "We can do it!" with a strong and confident woman pulling up her sleeve to show bulging arm muscles and a confident smirk. Rosie the Riveter became a hero for me, as a little girl I ran around wearing her shirt hanging well below my knees. My love for Rosie grew so much that I even named my first pet dog after her. As a grew into the eighth grade and into my Rosie shirt I found another female calling to me from the ancient halls of history. I did my 8th grade report on a African American woman known as Harriet Tubman. Harriet inspired me beyond all others because she was risking her life to save the lives of others. If you don't know who she is Tubman was a conductor on the underground rail road, a secret path of hiding places swamps and houses that were a trail for escaped slaves to get out of the south. Harriet knew the rail road like the back of her hand and so she would lead freed slaves along it. She was famous for being able to escape the guards and authorities that were after her, and at one point as one of the most wanted African Americans alive. Here is my very favorite quote from Harriet. "I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other."  She continued to inspire me as I read her powerful quotes and studied the life of this outstanding woman who freed over 1,000 slaves. As I grew older I found more and more female heroes who I wished to strive to be like.  I have realized that inside each woman there is the potential and pure ability to be just like Harriet or Rosie or any number of the female heroes and icons that are alive today. We all have that within us. We just need to find it and tap into it, and then there is nothing that we can't do. Dream a dream and then make it come true. We all have the ability to be the best we can be and we have to make the choice to be that person everyday. I'm not good at it but I'm trying to be, I want to be a light in this world, I want to be like Harriet or Rosie. I want young girls to look at the girls in the rap songs and think "that's not who I want to be.. I want to be strong independent and beautiful in my own way. I don't want to be used and looked down on because of my gender. I want to be a real woman." Its so hard for the youth of today not to fall into the trap of society, but I hope and pray that they will decide to walk in the footsteps of woman who have gone down in history because of the shape of their brains and not their hips.
amen sister!
Em
"well behaved woman rarely make history"