A Luta Continua …

The baton has passed, the race goes on. Today Sen. Clinton conceded the Democratic primary race to Sen. Obama and some wept. Her supporters have labored long and hard to push her across the finish line ahead of the pack, and although she outpaced most of the field and gave her all, it was not to be.

But for all of my sisters who despair, I can only urge you to heed her call and remind you of our shared history. The struggles of women for equality, has been since the birth of our nation, forever intertwined with that of racial minorities. From the struggles of the first  abolitionists and the Underground Railroad, to Susan B. Anthony and the first wave suffragettes, to the modern civil rights movement to the feminist movement of today. If you look back at history, you will see that we have struggled together through the decades, passing the baton back and forth, first one leading and then the other.

I learned as a child of the civil rights struggles, who grew up to the sound of bodies being blown down asphalt streets under the force of high powered fire hoses, that my companions in the struggle were often white women. When our bloody struggle gave momentum to the anti-Vietnam War movement and the second wave feminist movement, we shared the barricades and the bruises.

When I manned the picket lines on protest marches and union strikes, I found that at my side or in the lead, some of the strongest advocates and fiercest fighters were women. We fought the fight together on the picket lines and later in the workplace and courtrooms. And our fight was for the shared goals of being treated fairly, with dignity, respect and appreciation for our individual talents and abilities. Our struggle is the same - a shared struggle to be free of the oppression of domination, the pain of discrimination, the ability to work to the fullest extent of our abilities and to have our accomplishments fully recognized and rewarded.

Now Sen. Clinton has passed that baton to Sen. Obama, it is his turn to lead the struggle. But the struggle does not belong to him, he is merely the latest runner to carry the baton. His task is to carry it as far as he can, and with it all of our hopes and aspirations, and pass it to the next standard barrier – female or male. For if you look back just a bit, you will see that we all belong to the same long line of runners…

So let us rededicate ourselves to the fight, we have a country to right and a future to save...

A luta continua…