Because that’s what women do. It’s what we’ve always done. It’s in our nature. Persistence and perseverance. Some people might call us shrews, bitches, jibber jabberers, chatty Cathy’s, or even on the rare occasion, “nasty women”, but nevertheless, we persist. We are mothers, and daughters, sisters, aunties, lovers, wives, girlfriends, partners, and friends. 

    We speak for what we know needs to be said. For what is right. For the education of our children, for the gut wrenching choices that only we should ever have to make over what happens with our bodies, for the safe passage of our neighbors and friends to places both far AND wide. To make equal wages to what our male counterparts do, because truly there is NO reason not to!! We are the SAME!!! For the right to marry whom we choose because love is love is love is love is love is love. (Thanks Lin). 

     Nevertheless, we persist because sometimes it seems like the idea of some of these steps backward are so ludicrous that we can’t fathom that they are true and really happening. It becomes incomprehensible to grasp how so much progress can be undone in such a short amount of time. The notion that a woman would choose a birth control option to outlast a presidential administration becomes reality and not a far fetched idea spread around the rumor mill on social media “fake news” sites. 

     So nevertheless, she persisted because she wasn’t about to be silenced. Not for the civil rights icon whose words she spoke, or for the male colleagues who continually demeaned her and tried to stomp her out so she would be silenced. She would not be. She persisted. And she won. Because in the end, her voice was still heard. Of the people, for the people & by the people. And that was a very good thing.