Celebrating the centennial of women's suffrage and focusing on the next 100 years

The centennial of women's suffrage will be commemorated later this month. Unfortunately, like many remembrances throughout our history, it isn't a perfect celebration. Achieving the right to vote was hard fought, but it wasn't inclusive of all women. While the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote on August 26, 1920, many women of color were denied this right because of discriminatory Jim Crow laws that were passed in many states. These were the very same laws that denied men of color the right to vote.

I stood with many of my sisters at this year's Women's March in Seneca Falls as the snow fell softly around us. There, the centennial was definitely a topic of conversation among all of the incredible speakers, many of whom acknowledged its imperfection. In New York, we have a proud tradition of being on the forefront of advancing women's equality. While many of the gatherings on that hallowed ground in Seneca Falls did not include all of our sisters, one could tell by the signs and the vibrancy of the women who gathered there in January 2020 that we would not leave any of our sisters behind as we began our march for full and equal rights for all of our sisters over the next 100 years.

So how do we lift up this massive voting rights achievement, one that symbolizes for many the start of the women's movement for equality in this country? By making the next 100 years in the fight inclusive!

You see, there is no gender equality without racial equality. 

There is no gender equality without LGBTQ equality. 

There is no gender equality without disability rights equality. 

No sister can be left behind this time. Because as the saying goes, the struggle is real and that struggle is still raging on today.

Voter suppression in this country is real and rampant and blatant and racist and sexist and intentional. The mere idea of the entire electorate having the right to vote freely and easily and without coercion is a very real and dangerous threat to the power paradigm. 

Power, for some, is not something they want to share with people of color and certainly not something they want to share with women.

Voting matters. We know this.  

Elections matter. We know this.

The presidential election of 2020 matters, it is consequential on so many levels. It is a referendum on what we value and who we value in this country. What's at stake? Our freedoms, our ability to live a healthy life, our ability to maintain and strengthen civil, human and women's rights, our ability to support our families and retire with dignity and our ability to utilize science and facts without governmental interference. 

While those of you reading this are probably NYSUT members, many of our sisters and brothers across the country are in states, in counties and in parishes that could impede their right to vote come November. How will we help them vote and include everyone, not just those with privilege? We can support causes and organizations working to ensure all Americans have the ability to vote and have their votes counted:

1. Work with NYSUT. Your local president and our Regional Political Organizers can give you tasks to get out the vote and ensure that our communities - all our communities - participate in our democracy in New York state. Through our political work with the AFT, we will "adopt" other states to help GOTV. Be sure to check out AFT's site AFT Votes for more information on how you can get involved on a national level. go.aft.org/action

2. Support one or more of these eight voting rights organizations, including the League of Women Voters. https://www.bustle.com/p/8-voting-rights-organizations-to-know-before-the-2020-elections-roll-around-13156367

3. Check out Fair Fight https://fairfight.com/, founded by one of my favorite #SHEroes, Stacey Abrams, who after her narrow defeat in the Gubernatorial Race in Georgia has made it her mission to ensure access to democracy for all. 

4. Partner with Future Coalition, a national network and community encouraging the youth vote. www.futurecoalition.org

5. Call and write U.S. Senators from across the country to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020 that would restore components of the Voting Rights Act the Supreme Court struck down in 2013.

However or whatever you decide to do to celebrate and commemorate this achievement in our history,  be sure to also educate yourself on all of our sisters who have been a part of the struggle for equality. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/womenofthecentury/2020/02/08/black-history-month-these-19-black-women-fought-voting-rights/2842276001/ 

On our NYSUT Women's resource page you can find unsung heroines of the suffrage movement to inspire you to research the unsung heroines from your own community, so you can educate yourself and your students. There are many women who are not in our history books or given the credit they deserve. Thanks to our NYSUT Social Studies Subject Area Committee we have highlighted a diverse group of women from our state. https://www.nysut.org/resources/special-resources-sites/womens-committee/womens-history-2020/unsung-heroines-of-womens-suffrage 

Shirley Chisholm once said, "You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas."  

Let's spend the next several years in the game implementing those ideas, not on the sidelines but fighting for the rights of all women. Following the outbreak of the pandemic and the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor many have been faced with confronting the systemic racism, inequality and discrimination that exists in this country. Right now, educating our sisters and brothers about the importance of this election across our country and within our own state and communities is a way to create a legacy of voting that not only impacts this election but ripples through our nation and changes the electorate in this country for the next 100 years.  

Mr. President, This Is What Teachers Do

To the current occupant of the White House: A lesson in what teachers do by a veteran public school teacher.

Teachers feed children. 

They nurture them. 

They counsel them. 

They inspire them. 

They challenge them, and they support their dreams. 

They teach fact vs fiction, and they teach about science.

They teach children to question, analyze, synthesize and evaluate.

At an early age, they teach children to share and care for one another in a community setting. Teachers also sit knee to knee, eye to eye, and teach children to read and write.

Teachers show children the importance of remaining physically and emotionally healthy and how to cook and manage money.

Teachers expose children to art and music.

Teachers and public schools are the backbone and bedrock of our democracy.  

And there are millions of us spread across every state and every corner of this great country, a country which -- contrary to what the president says -- we love.

Oh, and teachers also vote!  We teach our students about the power and responsibilities of citizenship. 

Election Day 2020 cannot come soon enough, Mr. President, and when it does we will teach you a lesson about the strength of the collective and the will of the American electorate. 

Pack your bags.

How do we find balance in our lives?

Balance is something we are all striving for but never seem to find. If you are like me, you have a person in your life who seems very zen, but you have no idea how this person does it.

Personally, I am generally in a state of combined stress, panic and anxiousness from all I have on my professional plate.

One day while searching everywhere and anywhere for balance, I found a lost sock, and I stumbled on a quote by Jana Kingsford, "Balance isn't something you find. It's something you create."  Where has this wise woman been for the last 30 years of my life?!  

Good news:  I can stop looking for balance...and lost socks.

Bad news:  I've got work to do to create balance in my life.

And if you are like me, and I bet you are, you want to know how to create balance too. I'll let you in on a little secret, if I actually knew how to create balance I wouldn't be blogging about it, I'd be doing it.  

However, when I speak with educators, primarily female educators, it is one of the first things they convey to me. They want to know how to create balance in their lives. They want to take care and nurture themselves and their colleagues to maintain good physical and mental health, so they can tackle the challenges their demanding careers and lives require.

Summer is a great time to develop good habits and create that allusive balance in our lives.  These good habits can be carried with us into the new school year.  

Every July as my schedule as an educator became more flexible, I would dive head first into self-care. Unfortunately, once the school year fully resumed in the fall, the habits I had tried to develop started to slowly slip away. But now I know that I let them slip away.  

If this period of COVID has taught me anything, it is the importance of a more consistent routine for a balanced life. With regular sleep, a balanced diet and movement, I've felt more balance. And by having the gift of increased time at home during our NY Pause I've been able to take daily walks, which is as much "exercise" as this woman can muster, but I can tell that I am developing a habit that I want to, I even need to, maintain as my work pace starts to increase in intensity again. And if I can feel myself creating more balance...so can you!  

We've convinced ourselves that being our best selves means filling our days with all of the very important and needed work we must do to be exemplary educators, activists and unionists. But in reality, we aren't the best at anything when we are trying to do everything.  Because when we neglect ourselves our family and our friends and aren't taking the time to recharge and rejuvenate, we aren't living a balanced life.

So, I "stole" three ideas from a Better Homes and Garden magazine article (June 2020) and added one more idea on my own. These ideas are simple, good reminders of easy things you can do to help live a more balanced life:

1.  Exercise. 
• Try to find 30 minutes multiple times per week. Restorative exercise is great for creating a feeling of balance like yoga or Tai Chi. A walk, bike ride or hike in nature is terrific too.
2.  Sleep. 
• Consistent bed times and wake times are crucial. Experts say most of us aren't getting enough sleep so 7 - 8.5 hours is optimal.  
3.  Carve out some "me time." 
• Spend 30 minutes a day on self-care. Now, for someone like me, if I get 30 minutes of movement I may just need to count that as both my exercise and my "me time." For others, meditation, deep breathing, reading, sketching/painting, listening to music, dancing or writing might do the trick. Call a friend, work on a hobby, or garden. Heck, attending a rally, parade or protest safely may also be a way to carve out some time for yourself.
4.  Reduce your screen time. 
• I think this tip needs no explanation.Unplug! It takes a few days but once you have detoxed from the phone, tablet or computer, you feel free! To help with the transition, set up 2-3 times during the day when you will check the device(s) but then put them out of sight the rest of the time and don't cheat until it is time to check again.
  

In that same BHG magazine I saw a powerful quote from entrepreneur, Jen Gotch, 

"Think of self-help as tending your lawn. 

Mowing is a quick fix, 

but you have to really dig deep to get rid of the weeds. 

It takes work." 

While I know none of you want summer homework, maybe creating balance in your life is something you can find time to "dig deep" and work on during this unusual summer. So, I challenge all of the educators out there. How will you find balance in your life?