Elsa Winch

Lock Haven

In my lifetime, I witnessed the televised conflict of the Vietnam war and its end with the Saigon airlifts. Especially vivid are my memories of seeing American soldiers falling wounded or worse in the rice paddies, the faces of Vietnamese mothers desperately passing their children up to American soldiers reaching out of helicopters to save them from the invading VietCong. War was real.

I watched the televised first step on the moon, and RFK, Sr.’s and Rev. Martin Luther King’s speeches broadcast on our family television. The triumph of the lunar landing and the words and lives of these two men inspired me. And I lived through the public shock of seeing televised broadcasts of RFK’s and King’s assassinations in my parents’ living room. I became aware.

In my adolescence, I read the “The Feminist Mystique,” “Their Eyes were Watching God,””Our Bodies, Ourselves,” “Diet for a Small Planet” and articles in National Geographic magazine on Jane Goodall’s work in the Gombe. These publications changed my life. I am socially active.

I lost friends in graduate school to AIDs; people I still think about. I was crushed when the Equal Rights amendment failed, and kept failing, to pass into law. But I took great satisfaction in the success of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s career, and the enactment of Title IX and the Obergefell decision. I witnessed how our nation’s laws and policies impacted America’s civil rights.

Gun violence at schools, supermarkets, parades, music venues and bars caused me visceral pain and heartache. I became vocal.

In my professional life, it became my philosophy to teach young adults critical thinking skills and tools enabling them to evaluate the firehose of information they encountered on the internet. I was an educator.

My life was all part of the push and pull of loving a nation that wrestling with human rights, social equity, environmental awareness and protection, public health and social safety nets. I have always believed our imperfect government could put things right, especially if I made it a point to use my vote and my voice. I am patriotic.

And yet. Here I am.

It is so difficult to know how to respond to the chaos we are living in now. I think you know the salient points I am conveying.

However, I believe I have an obligation to my family, to my community, state and country. I am compelled to do my part to set things right. I believe that the power of change resides in each of us. Party designations have no meaning. America is a democracy. Red and Blue must become Purple to preserve the Constitution, our environment, our civility, compassion and empathy.

May I suggest this action as a place to start? Attend the “No Kings Rally” on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Triangle Park. 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Lock Haven. “No Kings” rallies remind us that power resides in the people. We rally to defend democracy, to protect civil liberties and to peacefully demand accountability from the officials we elect.

To find a rally near your town, go to www.nokings.org