The Sound of Silence As Everything Escalates
What Do We Even Do In The Midst Of So Much Overwhelm?
What do you even say? This afternoon, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a law essentially outlawing abortion in Iowa… or close enough. How do you deal with that kid of shock?
It’s been crickets here from us at Shift the Country for nearly two full weeks. That’s one reason why — because this was coming. Sometimes you have to process the personal shocks, and that’s one of them. It’s a doozy.
On the one hand, it was super inspiring to show up at the Iowa capitol on Tuesday and see so many people decked out in hot pink and angry about the special session that had been called specifically to outlaw abortion.
On the other hand, it took everything I had not to break into lurching, angry sobs… even as “pro-life” holier-than-thou types walked amongst us; preaching BS and about to get their way regardless.
There’s a sadism to it all. While it was good that hundreds of us showed up to raise heck about this law being passed… I have zero doubts that those voting in committee for it and those voting for the ban in the full legislature took a certain gloating zeal in “owning the libs” or whatever. Controlling women. Getting their way. Striking a victory for their perceived religious priorities through a government that’s supposed to be separate from churches.
They won.
They won this round — big time. Not just in Iowa but in dozens of states.
What do you even do in the light of that?
How do you take the blow that someone can tell you that if you’re pregnant and high-risk (or not!) that, well, too bad. Good luck. No help for you. Or whatever it is. Whatever it is — it’s no longer up to you — especially if you’re not living a comfortable enough life in some way that you could get to another state for an abortion or for emergency medical care if needed.
I’m not taking it well, and the odds of me getting pregnant are slim for reasons that are not anyone else’s business. Still, it could happen.
The point isn’t the odds. The point is this makes me feel like a young girl again not in control of what fate has put in front of me in so many ways. I feel all the aloneness of having to navigate terrifying circumstances with very few resources. I feel it because I lived it… having to deal with female health issues related to complicated issues with men… where the men aren’t there to deal with whatever damage and fallout happens from their actions. Where the women find ways to survive in the shadows, in whispers and hushed phone calls, and in long drives alone to medical clinics for uncomfortable conversations and procedures.
I felt about 12 standing in the capitol rotunda Tuesday. Not because something tragic happened when I was 12, but because I felt particularly helpless at 12.
I certainly wasn’t in charge of my own life then. Am I now? You tell me.
The Iowa governor signed this bill into law today at a gathering of evangelical folks all of whom are no doubt partying it up after fighting for this kind of control for decades. Freaking decades.
For me, I’m in shock. How many of the rest of the 3 million Iowans are too? How many are already panicked; trying to navigate what it means to be a woman or girl up in a state like this?
How have the people in the other states dealing with this made it through? I have questions. Where are their stories? Why don’t we hear more of them?
We should be.
What about all of the other hell that is unfolding? The blatant hate. The legalized discrimination. The lists go on and on, even while political consultants scold us that “identity politics” are not going to help Democrats.
Yeah? You think this is about identity?
Why isn’t it about our humanity?
We need to make it about our humanity. About what’s right.
We need to make it about our stories.
To that end, we’re steadily growing the work here at Shift the Country to help. We intend to help with way more storytelling, more narrative-driving, more ruckus, more business pressure, and so on.
There are things we could be doing. That’s a huge big point. The huge big point. We can do more. There are things we haven’t tried yet at scale or in different combinations or with bigger coalitions. There are ideas we haven’t even thought of yet. We can go bigger. Way, way bigger.
We need a moral shift and fights in all the places for what’s right. Who’s driving the narrative to counter all this far-right mishegoss in cities and towns and farmland up in this country? We could be.
For now, I’m just telling you Shift the Country hasn’t disappeared even though it’s been quiet. We’re over here dreaming and scheming. Hopefully you are too, because we’re going to need it.
Hell, I’ve been getting ready for this fight my whole life. I just didn’t realize it would be so hard to navigate the shocks when they started… and when they came in wave after wave after wave… like a hurricane hitting a beach. It’s no small feat not to get pulled under an ocean of overwhelm when that’s what’s happening — and that’s where we are up in this country.
So. Stick around here. We have more to come. I’ve been in cool calls with volunteers and with groups who are doing neat stuff. We have plans to follow our own 5 Things and to build coalitions, connection, and community to make shift happen. I owe several people email follow-ups. We have neat stuff to coordinate.
We will.
Sometimes you have to absorb the shock. Roll with the hits. Put on your oxygen mask. Breathe. That sort of thing.
So: keep breathing. Remember to eat and to sleep. Reach out to humans when you get in a tough spot. Join our Facebook group for community. Use tools to keep yourself sane and functional. We have much to do and much to come.
It’s going to get dicier. That’s the trend: intensity, and escalation.
Nothing — and I repeat — nothing is de-escalating the mess up in this country right now.
We’re going to have to mix it up to find some change and some resolution.
We can. We will. Onward.
The video below is a new-ish version of “The Sound of Silence.”
Vanessa, I wish Substack offered a Care emoji. My heart goes out to you. I feel your pain and understand your sense of trauma. I wondered what had happened...why there were no posts. And then this one hit my inbox. The damning thing about what happened with the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision and the legislation in Iowa is that it takes away our personhood and autonomy. It doesn't matter if we have children, had children, never wanted children...the point is that without the ability to decide for ourselves, we are "less than." And that it is a hard hard thing to reckon with. I don't know how this is going to get resolved. I do know that lots of people are working arduously to reinstate our rights--the right to abortion, the rights of the LGBTQ community, the right to be free from a state-imposed religiosity. We must stick together. We must do all that we can. We must also allow ourselves the space to grieve and then regroup if that's what we need to do. Please take care.
Like many others I’m in shock. The session and hearings were performative-decisions were made long ago and finalized on stage.🤬