Quickly Washing Away Women’s Rights
Janet Kuypers
8/26/22
After years of watching this international sport
(and being on the tennis team in school), I saw
Players from Russia, whom have
Either moved to Monaco to live,
Or were raised in the United States
Since childhood to be a better athlete.
And Then I remember at least
One Russian athlete then
Proudly walked with their Russian flag
During commencement parades for the
Olympics, and this sickened me.
For although I may not have been
Old enough to remember the Cold War,
Although I never had school drills
Ducking and covering under my desk
In case of a nuclear attack, I
Do remember hearing accounts
Of a Soviet-born comrade searching
For an escape route to the United States,
Finding a U.S. citizen to marry,
Even changing her name, to then
Denounce her citizenship to that
Communist Soviet Socialist Republic —
Because those who have beliefs
Will do something when their
Government’s gone wrong, and
Will no longer merely stand idly by.
So, yes, I do stand up in protest
Against your government, and when I see
International athletes who proudly stand
For their old mother Russia,
Especially when they haven’t lived there
And don’t know of Russian life themselves,
I become infuriated.
You may say, hey, the U.S.S.R.
No longer exists, stop living in the past...
And I think, people who don’t know
Their own history are bound to repeat it.
It doesn’t matter if Nikita Khrushchev
Took over Stalin’s dirty work, and
People may say no, Vladimir Putin is no
Mikhail Gorbachev, he replaced Boris Yeltsin
To herald a new day for the Soviet people.
But just because they let some western companies
Inside their borders to sell their wares,
Putin is slowly turning his voting country
Into a good old dictatorship again...
I watch history repeat itself
As Russia invades the Ukraine, takes over the
Once decimated Chernobyl nuclear plant
(leaving many scientists to wonder if the
Once-regulated remains, now ignored,
May cause another global disaster).
Then, Ukrainian people fight like mad
To keep their independence, leaders
From countries around the world
Provide arms to help them win
This David versus Goliath battle.
In all of this I see famous Russian
Tennis players after winning a tournament
Write “Peace” in temporary neon marker
On the lens of a video camera
Post-recording their victory.
Even countries hosting these
International tournaments will not allow
Russians to play under their country name —
So, when after what Russia is doing in a
Military conquest over another country,
These athletes go so far as to write
“Peace” on a screen that will
Only be quickly washed away, erased,
Because that is probably the most
They can do to show their protest
To the actions of their mother Russia.
They give well over half of their earnings
To their Soviet Socialist state, while
Now living in Monaco, they protest
By writing “peace”, and they think that’s
Enough.
And I think, you’ve chosen to
Align yourself with a government
That does this to its people.
How dare you.
#
It’s easy to doctorate your way into philosophy
And talk at great length at the injustices
You see in the world. How high and mighty.
I sit here and rail on about the evils of a
Government while today, right now,
I sit here in my little room with four walls
Not unlike a jail cell, look out my small window
Pre-dawn before it becomes another 100+° day
In a state which is taking away women’s rights.
I sit here and write, feel as if there is nothing
I can do, as here in Texas, Texans who perform
Abortions (not the women, the victims
Of this injustice, but the healthcare providers)
Now face up to life in prison and a $100,000 fine
for helping a woman in need.
Texas is the largest state to restrict
Women’s rights this way, now with
Three bans on the books.
(Wow, on the books, doing things
By the book, that usually implies
What’s best for a person in accordance
With the law, not that their laws are so
Subjective they only hurt people instead.)
These laws went into effect
Before I went to sleep last night...
I was wondering why my sleep seems so senseless.
But this conglomeration of penalties
Not only combines a civil six figure fee,
But also jail time — which is a violation,
To prosecute someone after they have
Already faced civil (i.e., money) penalties.
And no, I’m no lawyer, but my philosophy
Has remained on stable grounds for too long
To not see the legal problem with these laws,
If you don’t see the moral problems.
For Texans, check your premises
And note that even in the cases
Of prosecuting abortions,
The woman becomes the victim
(because it’s never about a clump of cells)
But the woman is the victim
When you choose to press charges.
She isn’t given jail time.
She isn’t meant to pay
Money she doesn’t have.
But she is the one who suffers,
Because of your laws
That you claim are meant
To protect.
And it might not matter
If five counties in Texas
(including the one where I live)
Would not press criminal charges
For these “offenses”
(I guess they prefer just fining people
Six figures, if they can afford it),
The point is that more and more
Southern bible-belt states
(that I still have to drive through
To get to my true home, up north)
Are imposing these bans in the first place.
#
You may question
Why I seem to be making
Such a big deal out of this,
It’s not like this directly affects me.
But unreligious me
Can only think of the quote
From a one-time antisemitic Nazi supporter,
Pastor Martin Niemöller, who was later
Imprisoned in a concentration camp
For speaking out against Nazi control of churches.
“First they came for the communists,
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak for me.”
I think of the uproar I heard
After Roe v. Wade was overturned,
That 1 in 3 American women
Have already lost abortion access, and
More restrictive laws are coming
From Texas up through Tennessee,
All the way to Idaho and North and South Dakota.
Even though the President’s executive order
To help women travel to less restrictive states
For abortions was signed in early August,
Confusion still exists on both sides
After this overturning and combatting began.
Left-leaning judges block part of Idaho’s abortion laws;
Right-leaning judges block emergency abortion guidance.
So, I sit here in my metaphoric cell,
Spouting out about the injustices of the world.
But then I think of the Russians I have lambasted
And wonder if I hold these same
Moral arguments up to myself.
The worst things are happening to women
In a state I was forced to move to,
So, why don’t I just leave.
Well, maybe it’s not as simple
As I wish to claim it for me,
Maybe things aren’t as cut and dry
As I always assume them to be,
Writing passionately from my corner
And never otherwise getting involved.
But in these situations, if I’m stuck here,
And there’s nothing I can do,
It may be precisely because
We’re all stuck here,
As I see one protest after another
Of women holding signs saying
“Abort the Patriarchy”,
“ProTexas, ProChoice”,
“Keep Abortion Legal”,
“Stop the War on Women”,
“We are not Ovary Acting!”,
“I am a Woman, Not a Womb”,
“Keep Your Hands off my Body”,
“There is no “You” in (my) Uterus”
“Keep your Rosaries off my ovaries”,
“Our Bodies, Our Choice, Our Rights”,
“A Women’s place is IN YOUR FACE”,
“I Will Not Quietly go back to the 1950s”,
“Nothing About My Body is your Choice”,
“Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights”,
“pro-Life is a LIE, they don’t care if we DIE”,
“Pregnancy begins with a Penis, regulate THAT”,
“Why do Guns have more Rights than a Womb?”,
“We Need to Talk About the Elephant in the Womb”,
“Not Your Body, Not Your Uterus, Not Your Choice”,
“Abortion is a Personal Decision, not a Legal Debate”,
“My arms are tired of holding this sign since the 1960s”.
“You Wanna Cut Off My Rights, Can I Cut off Yours?”,
“We Are Ruth (Bader Ginsberg) less — act accordingly”,
“He Who Hath not a Uterus Should Shut the Fucketh Up”,
“Public Cervix Announcement: No Uterus = No Opinion”,
“If Men could become Pregnant, Abortions would be Sacrament”,
“Texas: where a Virus has Reproductive Rights and a Woman Doesn’t”,
“Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but a clump of cells is not a baby”,
“FIGHT LIKE A (woman who has the right to choose to not become a) MOTHER”,
“Making Abortions Illegal Didn’t Stop Abortions Any More than Prohibition Stopped Drinking”
(These messages are getting louder and louder,
longer and longer, but I think you get the idea.)
But if there are this many people who feel this strongly,
This reassures me, and makes me wonder if protests at
Times like this really do lead to change. Maybe just the
Right words from every person in any way they can this
Time, can come from all — no matter how big or small,
To get this repressive mentality out of the dark ages.
None of us are sure just how we took so many giant
Steps backward, but I think we all agree:
It’s time to move forward again.
|
Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her v205 3/23 Down in the Dirt issue/book “My Homeland” poems “Chlorine” (which is also in her book “Periodic Table Poetry”), “Chlorine defines dioxins” (which is also in her book “Twitter Verse Periodic Table Poetry”), and “Quickly Washing Away Women’s Rights” (which will also be in the 2023 CyberWit.net book “Testament”) during her “Poetic License 3/5/23 global open mic” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
This was also released as a Facebook live video stream (filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera, and posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense #janetkuypers #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperswomensrights #janetkuypersequalityforwomen #janetkuyperspoetry
Enjoy this YouTube” video on 8/12/23 of Janet Kuypers on Chicago’s WZRD 88.3 FM radio, where during her interview on the air she read her “Testament” book poems “Journalisming the Story of Equal Rights”, “Kerning, Ballots, and Women’s Rights”, portions of the poem “Quickly Washing Away Women’s Rights”, and as a bonus, the first poem she performed in her “Into the Spotlight” Chicago feature, “Evil of What They’ve Done” (this video was filmed live in studio from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). 
Also enjoy this YouTube” video filmed live in studio from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). 
Enjoy this YouTube video from 8/12/23 of Janet Kuypers in her first encore reading after her lead feature at Tangible Books in Chicago, where she read her poems “Quickly Washing Away Women’s Rights” and “On a Sunday After a Sermon” from the CyberWit 2023 Janet Kuypers book “Testament” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest,
Instagram, and Tumblr).
Also enjoy this YouTube video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr. #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypers #janetkuyperschicago #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuyperswomensrights
