Today, I Fight On

My great-grandmother, Martha Leipold, was a social democrat in Germany before WWII. A single mother, she helped lead the political fight against Hitler. She was assassinated by the Nazi's for her views. (I have the documentation. The Germans always kept great records.) She left two children behind, my grandmother and great uncle (who was killed at the Russian Front). Her life and death is made meaningful by those of us left behind to continue the fight for social justice.

Today, as a 57-year-old white woman, I have spent my entire life fighting injustice and working for women's rights. On November 8, 2016, I had hoped to tell my granddaughter that finally she could be anything. Instead I grieved that that message would have to wait. So I fight on, advocating and fighting for a world in which my grandchildren can play freely and filled with love and peace with all the other children and grandchildren of the world without fear of war or hunger or hate. I believe we can achieve it, but not today my darling granddaughter, not yet.