WE WON!

Events in life seem to continually put us in a position of being winners or losers.  But each of us must define for ourselves what is meant by winning and losing and not be led astray by how the media may define it.   We subscribe to the conviction of Grantland Rice:  "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game."  

Some may think the winners are the ones who voted for and supported the media's choice.  But those of us who have stood fast against the onslaught of misogyny, hate and derision know that we are the winners.  

We won because we believe deeply in gender equality.  We won because we censored the Democratic Party for cooking the books in their Primary for the sole purpose of defeating a woman and maintaining the status quo of good ol' boy politics.  

We won because no matter how much it hurt and no matter how cruelly we were taunted and blasphemed by friend and foe alike, we stood firm because all the evidence showed that the best candidate for the job of president was a woman. 

We won because we never wavered in our passion despite the piles of crap and garbage thrown at us.  We watched former ally after former ally turn away from us as their courage and conviction evaporated in the storm of blog and media hype.  

INVICTUS   
by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)  

Out of the night that covers me,  
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,  
I thank whatever gods may be  
For my unconquerable soul.  

In the fell clutch of circumstance  
I have not winced nor cried aloud.  
Under the bludgeonings of chance  
My head is bloody, but unbowed.  

Beyond this place of wrath and tears  
Looms but the horror of the shade,  
And yet the menace of the years  
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.  

It matters not how strait the gate,  
How charged with punishments the scroll,  
I am the master of my fate;  
I am the captain of my soul.

twandx@yahoo.com

2008-048

Copyright 2008 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@comcast.net.

G e n d e r G a p p e r s   ^{T M}

"Many women, faced with the results of their decision not to vote in 1994, i.e. a mean-spirited, anti-woman congressional majority, made history and demonstrated their empowerment in 1996 by creating the largest gender-gap ever.

To some of us, this was a revelation of the power we have but seldom use..."