Steps closer to reclaiming our time.

Plog=Pam’s log

     Hello, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Pam Pope JD, MSN APRN-C. I am an African American woman who works as a nurse practitioner and as an attorney. I want to reach out to women like myself who are concerned about the state of our rights in this country.  I have many areas that I would like to discuss with you. I have decided to call my blog, "Pam's Plog" and I am clear on the purpose. The purpose is to empower women, not to go back to life in the 1950’s. Moving backward is not a healthy option for any of us.

     Here we are just past the take down of Roe V Wade. Yes it has been a dark weekend. Yes I am mad, appalled and I feel out done by it all. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s when we had Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Bea Author, N.O.W. (National Organization for women) and the failed E.R.A. (Equal rights Amendment). As a young woman I knew that women had reproductive rights. For almost my entire life this was protected. I grew up feeling like “we had this”.

     When I was young I would see women in the Middle East and how they had to walk behind their men. Life magazine, National Geographics and Time Magazine always featured these women. They had no rights or status other than to be controlled by men. It was law for them. I felt so bad for them and felt good to live in the US where women were strong, mouthy and free. Little did I know that things were going to go backwards. As we lose rights, we are more like those poor women in the National Geographic magazines.

     I grew up and became a young women with a keen interest in the Law and a nursing career that my  Father suggested for me. Now I do both and I love having two careers.  I am an Attorney and a Nurse Practitioner and have never felt poverty or powerlessness. Having a college degree and a higher than minimum wage job has served me well. I have owned, homes and cars and lived a nice middle class life. But my life has changed a lot over these 50 years.

     Many believe that our country is moving backwards! I agree. We (women) have lost our reproductive rights and I personally don’t take kindly to a loss of any rights. This loss affects and will affect all American women for years to come. It doesn’t matter if you are Black, White, Hispanic, Arabic, Liberal or Conservative. We all just lost a lot. This forum is for all women. Because this will affect us all differently. I want you to reclaim what you need to reclaim. I will reclaim what I need to reclaim. We are all different yet united in our loss. These misogynistic laws will affect, black women, impoverished women, rural women all differently. We all have something different to lose. We have to come together kvetch, brainstorm, prepare and execute a plan. It is simple, we have to act. Inaction is intolerable and pathetic. We women are smart, have great memories, can be very vengeful and a force to be reckoned with.  Face it, we are smarter than men, but they have all the power. Imagine men letting us tell them what to do with their prized possession between their legs. It would NEVER happen.

     I believe that we individually have great ideas and strategies. We have strength in numbers and especially in the voting booth. We have enormous economic power. We are the heart of most homes. I want us to bring all of this together and become a powerful force to be reckoned with.

     I think we should get together via Zoom, email, social media, whatever it takes to connect. We are powerful in numbers. Lets work united and get our power back. Lets be political, organizational, focused, powerful and whatever else we need to do. Lets RECLAIM!!