Women

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Norm's Soapbox- My corner of Hyde Park

I want a way to remind our Congressional representatives that they do in fact represent women. It seems so ridiculous to me that, in 2012, I have to remind them that women vote, that women have influence over a majority of family’s budgets. I want to remind Congress that women exist, that women count, that women are important regardless of their fertility.

I propose that we start using the Sacagawea dollar coins to visually remind the world that American women are more than wombs. Why use this method to speak out in support of women? These gold coins, arguably an attempt to honor women, are unwanted. They are so unwanted that the bank teller told me that they haven’t had those coins in more than three years because no one wanted them. I had to take a roll of $25 because the bank teller didn’t want to open a roll! Society doesn’t honor this beautiful coin, and they don’t value women. A manager in my office didn't even realize that there was a gold one-dollar coin featuring a woman. As I researched the history of Sacagawea on the U.S. Mint website, I learned some interesting facts.

At about the age of 11, Sacagawea was captured by a Hidatsa raiding party and taken from her tribe. She was later sold into slavery. Then her new owners gave her away in a bet to a French-Canadian fur trader, who made her his wife. She had no choice in where she would live, if she would marry, or what course her life would take.

According to the CDC, the largest demographic for women who have had abortions is women under the age of 15? Sacagawea was only 15 years old and already six-months pregnant when the Lewis and Clark expedition started. In today’s society we are still fighting for the right to keep our jobs when we are pregnant and still fighting for the right to feed our infants in public without being shamed.

Sacagawea is a perfect symbol for our struggles today, with her infant son bound to her back. Technically she wasn't a U.S. Citizen. Our law-makers call vote after vote on whether or not Planned Parenthood and free clinics should be funded – which is where women without health care can go for birth control and pap smears and mammograms. Regardless of income or immigration status women across the country juggle work and family. Women contribute to society in addition to, and in spite of, their status as a parent or a spouse.

Sacagawea and her son served as a "white flag" of peace for the expedition, which was as much a military expedition as a scientific one. They entered potentially hostile territory, but not a single member of the party was lost to hostile action because no war party was ever accompanied by a woman and infant. And today, military women are still struggling to have access to the same reproductive rights given to civilian women.

Not all of us are comfortable carrying signs or calling Senators, but we can all use these coins. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, if you are rich or poor – everyone can join in this reminder to honor women. It doesn’t even really matter what you think about Roe v. Wade; the only thing that matters is that you know that women and their health-care providers are the ones to make a decision about all health matters including reproductive choices. If you think that family decisions belong with a family, and not with Congress, please use the Sacagawea dollars. Just for the month of March, women's history month – please use the Sacagawea dollars. Maybe donate one of those dollars to Planned Parenthood?

3/1/2012