“Do You Think This Makes Any Difference?”

This was the question presented to me by my girl friend as we left a political march after the Dobbs decision (which overturned Roe v. Wade, a day that sunk my soul). She heard one was happening downtown but had never been to any kind of protest or political anything before. She thought, “I know whose gonna be going” and called me. *internal fist pump*

We stood in front of the state house and listened to a few speakers, walked around downtown, and then went home. As we were walking back to the car, she asked me the title question. I realized I was hard pressed to answer, or at least to defend my answer. Did I think it made a difference? I’ve been going these for decades and has there been anything different? Not if Im being honest, not really. But then, why do I devote so much energy to doing these things?

I’ve thought about this periodically over the past year.

Right now I’m reading a new book out by Mattie Kahn entitled, Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America’s Revolutions. One of the early chapters talks about girls involved in the suffrage movement in the early 20th century, particularly after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911. There had already been strikes and speeches, but one of the leaders realized that the visual effect, a block of innocent and beseeching girls walking together in a large block, could be compelling. That “optics were the whole game.” She also explained the lengths the organizers went to to make it the most powerful image possible.

I have realized that my answer to her question could be answered both ways simultaneously. First, I’m not positive going out there that day made a difference. Ohio would still be gerrymandered and it would still be tightening controls over women’s health options. Maybe it didn’t make a difference. Or maybe it will, just not immediately.

Women fought for suffrage for decades before getting it (only white women, though.) Such victories as suffrage or Brown v. Board of Education did not just spring up out of nowhere. No change did. And how many things before those changes seemed pointless until they weren’t? 

I have a better answer for my friend now. It matters, but only as long as you keep pushing.