I am taking a pause this week from my Regenerating Life and Love posts to rage. There are so many things happening in my country right now. Depending on your ideologies, they might be horrifying or exciting. I’ve tried multiple times to bring myself into a space of understanding and contemplation, but I am struggling. What I am witnessing is, for me, horrifying.

That is mostly because I am a woman, amongst other things. But I am careful not to show too much of my horror, as I understand what that means for me. I am careful because as a female I know that:

1. I must check my emotions such that they are never too intense as to avoid the arbitrary and baseless accusations of being irrational in all of my feelings (thank you, vagina)

2. I must nurture the emotions of men so that I can both support men having emotions and being brave enough to express them, while also assuaging the possibility of hurt feelings*

3. I stand on the front lines everyday while a barrage of insults, critiques, societal violence, emotional abuse, and negative internal dialog fire at me and my kind, disproportionately

Not every male with whom I interact is a delicate flower, nor is every day a dance of managing emotions in a stormy sea of scorn for my gender. The truth is, however, that throughout history, women have been treated more like objects than people – tools that serve a purpose. A purpose determined by men. At the same time, we are trying to shift the social mores of the West in a fraction of the time it took us to develop the bigotry of today. With it comes a resistance to change. I am seeing this resistance against women happening regularly. As are minorities, indigenous people of the Americas, the LGBTQ+ community, and all of the Others in this world. The Others who inspire differences. The Others who look different. The Others who think different. The Others who live different. Pray different. Eat different. Are different.

Much in the same way that we are all discarded or treated as disposable, a nuisance, a drain, or a problem, so has the environment. So have the animals. We spend a lot of time inventing ways to kill and consume: resources are being depleted, arthropods are exterminated (the labels might have you convinced you are targeting ticks and mosquitos, but that is a fairytale), animals are imprisoned, and this ruthlessness of men offers little in the way of protection. The policies of our governments are not written for most of us. Why is that?

Well, I can’t speak to other countries, nor can I speak too granular on the subject regarding my own country, I plea a certain amount of ignorance to the nuances of my own government. What I can say is this…our Federal system is one that claims to be by the people, for the people; but, when you look back to when it all began, it was all white, European men who held office. We were active members of the slave trade with Africa, and women could not vote. We built on stolen lands, then promptly exploited it for resources. There was only one group represented within our government, and it remained that way for very long time. I suppose the slogan “by white men, for white men” doesn’t have the same ring to it, nor does it evoke the same heroic tone our new, ambitious nation was hoping to convey as it espoused the ideology of freedom from oppression.

So, if women, minorities, LGBTQ+, Others, animals, and the environment could not (then), do not (now), or will not (ever) hold a seat in office, how can they truly be represented? If there is no active voice for anyone but humans, most of whom are still white males, who speaks on behalf of the silent? Our trees, air, waters, lands, ecosystems, beasts, bugs, birds…they all communicate differently. If they are in pain, starving, or suffering, how do we know? How do we protect them? If women are in pain or suffering and we DO speak the same language, but are cast aside for hysteria or irrational thought, then what hope does anything else have?

This is where my rage exists. There is a constant, quiet violence against us all and it is currently growing. The right to live a healthy life, free from disease, harm, or oppression hangs on the decisions of people who do not have the lived experience of those of us still fighting for justice. Just as trees do not rebel, nor did the slaves; just as cows do not escape, nor did women; just as the dandelion is rooted out as a weed, so were the gay, trans, and Others of our society. “Just as” – conforming, hiding, masking, disappearing, and dying amongst each other – is not justice. This monoculture of men – powerful and self-serving men – will destroy the biodiversity that promotes a healthy ecosystem if we don’t learn to fight back. We have, thankfully, had individuals throughout our history take up arms for the powerless. There are glimmers of light in the dark past that give us the fortitude to stand against the oppressors, but I fear the cost will be steep.

I am sitting here today, in a world where my reproductive freedoms have been stripped away (protected only by the state in which I live). Career aspirations burned to ashes by massive clear cutting to public and environmental health agencies and the complete dismantling of USAID. I believe in these systems and the people who have worked for them. The systems that fight disease, even for the poor. The systems that fight for the environment, even the “non-productive” ones. The systems that fight for animal welfare, even the ones we consume. They provide us with biodiversity, cultural diversity, and genetic diversity. They are our greatest strength, not our greatest weakness. They are important, not just for social justice, but for ecological justice. These systems, the people who support them, and the diversity they generate are in danger.

I rage over this. I am outraged by this. I will no longer contain my emotions to prove I am not hysterical. I will not suffer silence for the fragility of man. I will no longer absorb the hostility from society. When one woman is silenced or abused, her ideas stolen, innovations undervalued, and discoveries wrongly attributed, we all feel the pain, collectively. When an entire species go extinct, the Earth feels it, even if you do not. Fighting to exist in this world, just as I am, is no different for me than fighting for nature. I am only one person, and I feel small and helpless. But I feel hopeful, because if you have never heard the sounds of a reckoning, then you have no idea what is coming when the women, minorities, LGBTQ+ community, allies, and the Others unite to one voice for ourselves, for the world, and for nature.

*A note on the hurt feelings of men. I am not implying that all men are emotionally fragile. I believe we all have the potential to be fragile and sensitive.