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Editor’s Letter and TOC: “The Right of the People”

by Mikki Morrissette
in , ,

We nearly skipped the topic of “250 Years” this summer. Any celebration of a whitewashed United States history seems hollow. In the end, of course, that is why we created this package of stories — to offer our uniquely feminist perspective on the rights and demands of women, immigrants, workers, and voters over time.

Prior to listing grievances against a tyrannical king, the Declaration of Independence points out that government derives its powers from “the consent of the governed.” If government is destructive, “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

In a nutshell, that is some of what is gathered here:

  • Insights from Stacey Abrams and Winona LaDuke
  • Reminders of the arduous journeys of labor, voting, and women’s rights over more than a century
  • Contemporary perspectives on how to prevent — not simply prosecute or mourn — violence.

Our Future Forward section was partly derived from our new editorial board of people under 30 — a wonderful group of passionate content developers with a long list of story ideas about mental health, public health, ecosystems, data centers, immigrant storytelling, and books and arts. Thanks to underwriting with the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and a small grant from the Minnesota Council on Foundations, some of these stories can be told. However, many of them cannot. A grant we hoped to receive for our series on The Eco, for example, is not forthcoming. We also are still limited in budget for our “Talk & Do” series. It is frustrating to hold back content development in this time.

In Rebecca Traister’s book Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, she notes that the actions of suffragists in the early 1800s were followed by the labor and civil rights movements — which led in turn to high school students marching for stricter gun laws, carrying signs such as: “Your guns have more rights than my vagina.”

As most of the voices in this issue point out, the way for a subjugated majority to win against an oppressive minority is through unity. To that end, please share the e-edition version of this package of stories with friends, donors, underwriters, foundations, and potential supporting members so we are able to tell the stories of solutions, solidarity, and action that we can uniquely develop: womenspress.com/PDF-edition

Table of Contents

Indigenous Vision
Winona LaDuke: Planting Seeds in Times of Darkness       

Commentary

Politics & Policy

Women’s Rights
Karin Wille: My Roots in Feminism

Profile
Lynette Malles: My Quest Seeking Progress Since 1960       

Violence Prevention

Labor Rights

Future Forward

 

Minnesota Women’s Press uniquely centers marginalized voices — but we need your support to keep doing so. As you might have heard, long-time media outlets like Lavender (newly closed) and Star Tribune (dramatic personnel cuts) are curtailed. So are we. But we are committed to story development with whatever funds we have as we move toward a consumer-owned media co-op model by year-end.

Planting Seeds in Times of DarknessGrief for the Country We Are — and Hope in Our Potential