Chelsea White speaking at the National Press Club on January 30, 2018. (Photo: Screenshot)
The State of OUR Union Is Ready To Lift Up Truth
We are fighting for a collective vision, not only of the world that might be, but of the world as it is, a world of everyday, courageous women who do not resist history, but who create it.
Chelsea White spoke at The State Of Our Union, a gathering of nine hundred women from fifty grassroots and national groups at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Jan. 30, 2018.
My name is Chelsea White and I am a proud, Appalachian woman. I live in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina, where I grew up in a small town with a population a little over 2,000 folks. In my earliest years, I was raised by a single mother, who worked night and day to make sure I always had food on my plate, clothes on my back and a roof over my head.
We leaned on other strong women - grandmothers, aunts, neighbors - to keep us afloat in the hardest of times... The sacrifices of my mother - of those women - never went unnoticed, and neither did my community's.
You see, like much of Appalachia, our community has been struggling through decades of poverty and isolation. Growing up, I remember watching my friend from the bus sneaking snacks home from school to feed her younger siblings. I remember my grandma talking about how she had to fight for every job she ever had - just to make less money, and eventually get fired for being pregnant.
I remember seeing the plague of addiction overtake the people I knew, one by one as the years went by. I remember seeing domestic violence that combined with the plague of addiction to create a poison that pulled a gun on my cousin and took her life before she could even reach the age that I am now.
Which brings me to today, when rural women's lives are still on the line. Where I live, one in five women above the age of 18 live in poverty. More than half of the counties across the mountains of North Carolina don't have a hospital at all, or they don't have any labor and delivery units - forcing women to go to dangerous lengths to bring life into this world.
I ask you, in 2018, how can it be that a woman has to drive three hours just to give birth to her child? Where are women supposed to have babies? On dirt roads?
For a President who recently said he would "defend the right to life," I say he needs to come to my community and address the disparities in accessing rural healthcare that threatens women's lives every day.
And despite all of that, I'm here to tell you tonight that there's a new wave of defiance growing in the mountains, and that defiance is FEMALE, is young AND old, AND is every color of the rainbow. I organize with a community group called Down Home North Carolina and People's Action, (shout out to the Down Home women who do the hard work of grassroots organizing with me day in and day out, Lois, Joanne, Natasha, Keisha, Gina, Sam, Debbie).
We are growing out of silence to become louder than ever! We are fighting to build a new economy that values dignified work for everyone. We are fighting to save the lives of our loved ones who are struggling with opioid addiction. We are fighting to ensure safety and justice for the Black, Latina, Indigenous, Queer, and poor folk who live and love in the rural parts of North Carolina.
President Trump thinks that he can count on my community for his votes in 2020. The Republican Party thinks that my community will deliver their votes in 2018. Don't they know we see how they voted on healthcare? Don't they know we understand how they just screwed us over with the Tax Bill?
There's an old saying where I grew up that goes, "Whistlin' women and crowin' hens, always come to no good ends." Well, with the organizing we are doing now, I would change it up a little to say, "These whistlin' women and crowin' hens" are stirring up trouble for good ends!"
We are fighting for a collective vision, not only of the world that might be, but of the world as it is, a world of everyday, courageous women who do not resist history, but who create it. As women organizing in the rural parts of our state, the women of Down Home are part of the legacy of our ancestors' fire and bravery to preserve both mountain people and the land.
When I was growing up, people were trying to run from the idea of being Appalachian. But, with Down Home, we are building a homegrown resistance where young women like me, are staying right where we live to fight for economic and political power.
Right now, North Carolina ranks 31st for the number of women in the state legislature. I live in a state where Women comprise only 38 of 170 seats, or 22 percent, in the General Assembly, and women of color hold only 12 of those seats.
Black women have only been 2.3 percent of candidates for elected office since 2004. We have a long way to go to gain political representation in our government. However, changes are afoot. In North Carolina in 2014, women won a majority of the elections in which they ran. Which makes one point clear, when women do run for political office, we tend to win.
So we need you, ladies. To step up and run for Office or pick a friend and help her run for Office. Get out there, work hard, and win.
My name is Chelsea. I believe in the power of our union. And in 2018, I pledge to fight, organize, so that rural women have the power to determine our own lives -- to take back our voice and use our vote to move mountains.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Chelsea White spoke at The State Of Our Union, a gathering of nine hundred women from fifty grassroots and national groups at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Jan. 30, 2018.
My name is Chelsea White and I am a proud, Appalachian woman. I live in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina, where I grew up in a small town with a population a little over 2,000 folks. In my earliest years, I was raised by a single mother, who worked night and day to make sure I always had food on my plate, clothes on my back and a roof over my head.
We leaned on other strong women - grandmothers, aunts, neighbors - to keep us afloat in the hardest of times... The sacrifices of my mother - of those women - never went unnoticed, and neither did my community's.
You see, like much of Appalachia, our community has been struggling through decades of poverty and isolation. Growing up, I remember watching my friend from the bus sneaking snacks home from school to feed her younger siblings. I remember my grandma talking about how she had to fight for every job she ever had - just to make less money, and eventually get fired for being pregnant.
I remember seeing the plague of addiction overtake the people I knew, one by one as the years went by. I remember seeing domestic violence that combined with the plague of addiction to create a poison that pulled a gun on my cousin and took her life before she could even reach the age that I am now.
Which brings me to today, when rural women's lives are still on the line. Where I live, one in five women above the age of 18 live in poverty. More than half of the counties across the mountains of North Carolina don't have a hospital at all, or they don't have any labor and delivery units - forcing women to go to dangerous lengths to bring life into this world.
I ask you, in 2018, how can it be that a woman has to drive three hours just to give birth to her child? Where are women supposed to have babies? On dirt roads?
For a President who recently said he would "defend the right to life," I say he needs to come to my community and address the disparities in accessing rural healthcare that threatens women's lives every day.
And despite all of that, I'm here to tell you tonight that there's a new wave of defiance growing in the mountains, and that defiance is FEMALE, is young AND old, AND is every color of the rainbow. I organize with a community group called Down Home North Carolina and People's Action, (shout out to the Down Home women who do the hard work of grassroots organizing with me day in and day out, Lois, Joanne, Natasha, Keisha, Gina, Sam, Debbie).
We are growing out of silence to become louder than ever! We are fighting to build a new economy that values dignified work for everyone. We are fighting to save the lives of our loved ones who are struggling with opioid addiction. We are fighting to ensure safety and justice for the Black, Latina, Indigenous, Queer, and poor folk who live and love in the rural parts of North Carolina.
President Trump thinks that he can count on my community for his votes in 2020. The Republican Party thinks that my community will deliver their votes in 2018. Don't they know we see how they voted on healthcare? Don't they know we understand how they just screwed us over with the Tax Bill?
There's an old saying where I grew up that goes, "Whistlin' women and crowin' hens, always come to no good ends." Well, with the organizing we are doing now, I would change it up a little to say, "These whistlin' women and crowin' hens" are stirring up trouble for good ends!"
We are fighting for a collective vision, not only of the world that might be, but of the world as it is, a world of everyday, courageous women who do not resist history, but who create it. As women organizing in the rural parts of our state, the women of Down Home are part of the legacy of our ancestors' fire and bravery to preserve both mountain people and the land.
When I was growing up, people were trying to run from the idea of being Appalachian. But, with Down Home, we are building a homegrown resistance where young women like me, are staying right where we live to fight for economic and political power.
Right now, North Carolina ranks 31st for the number of women in the state legislature. I live in a state where Women comprise only 38 of 170 seats, or 22 percent, in the General Assembly, and women of color hold only 12 of those seats.
Black women have only been 2.3 percent of candidates for elected office since 2004. We have a long way to go to gain political representation in our government. However, changes are afoot. In North Carolina in 2014, women won a majority of the elections in which they ran. Which makes one point clear, when women do run for political office, we tend to win.
So we need you, ladies. To step up and run for Office or pick a friend and help her run for Office. Get out there, work hard, and win.
My name is Chelsea. I believe in the power of our union. And in 2018, I pledge to fight, organize, so that rural women have the power to determine our own lives -- to take back our voice and use our vote to move mountains.
Chelsea White spoke at The State Of Our Union, a gathering of nine hundred women from fifty grassroots and national groups at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Jan. 30, 2018.
My name is Chelsea White and I am a proud, Appalachian woman. I live in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina, where I grew up in a small town with a population a little over 2,000 folks. In my earliest years, I was raised by a single mother, who worked night and day to make sure I always had food on my plate, clothes on my back and a roof over my head.
We leaned on other strong women - grandmothers, aunts, neighbors - to keep us afloat in the hardest of times... The sacrifices of my mother - of those women - never went unnoticed, and neither did my community's.
You see, like much of Appalachia, our community has been struggling through decades of poverty and isolation. Growing up, I remember watching my friend from the bus sneaking snacks home from school to feed her younger siblings. I remember my grandma talking about how she had to fight for every job she ever had - just to make less money, and eventually get fired for being pregnant.
I remember seeing the plague of addiction overtake the people I knew, one by one as the years went by. I remember seeing domestic violence that combined with the plague of addiction to create a poison that pulled a gun on my cousin and took her life before she could even reach the age that I am now.
Which brings me to today, when rural women's lives are still on the line. Where I live, one in five women above the age of 18 live in poverty. More than half of the counties across the mountains of North Carolina don't have a hospital at all, or they don't have any labor and delivery units - forcing women to go to dangerous lengths to bring life into this world.
I ask you, in 2018, how can it be that a woman has to drive three hours just to give birth to her child? Where are women supposed to have babies? On dirt roads?
For a President who recently said he would "defend the right to life," I say he needs to come to my community and address the disparities in accessing rural healthcare that threatens women's lives every day.
And despite all of that, I'm here to tell you tonight that there's a new wave of defiance growing in the mountains, and that defiance is FEMALE, is young AND old, AND is every color of the rainbow. I organize with a community group called Down Home North Carolina and People's Action, (shout out to the Down Home women who do the hard work of grassroots organizing with me day in and day out, Lois, Joanne, Natasha, Keisha, Gina, Sam, Debbie).
We are growing out of silence to become louder than ever! We are fighting to build a new economy that values dignified work for everyone. We are fighting to save the lives of our loved ones who are struggling with opioid addiction. We are fighting to ensure safety and justice for the Black, Latina, Indigenous, Queer, and poor folk who live and love in the rural parts of North Carolina.
President Trump thinks that he can count on my community for his votes in 2020. The Republican Party thinks that my community will deliver their votes in 2018. Don't they know we see how they voted on healthcare? Don't they know we understand how they just screwed us over with the Tax Bill?
There's an old saying where I grew up that goes, "Whistlin' women and crowin' hens, always come to no good ends." Well, with the organizing we are doing now, I would change it up a little to say, "These whistlin' women and crowin' hens" are stirring up trouble for good ends!"
We are fighting for a collective vision, not only of the world that might be, but of the world as it is, a world of everyday, courageous women who do not resist history, but who create it. As women organizing in the rural parts of our state, the women of Down Home are part of the legacy of our ancestors' fire and bravery to preserve both mountain people and the land.
When I was growing up, people were trying to run from the idea of being Appalachian. But, with Down Home, we are building a homegrown resistance where young women like me, are staying right where we live to fight for economic and political power.
Right now, North Carolina ranks 31st for the number of women in the state legislature. I live in a state where Women comprise only 38 of 170 seats, or 22 percent, in the General Assembly, and women of color hold only 12 of those seats.
Black women have only been 2.3 percent of candidates for elected office since 2004. We have a long way to go to gain political representation in our government. However, changes are afoot. In North Carolina in 2014, women won a majority of the elections in which they ran. Which makes one point clear, when women do run for political office, we tend to win.
So we need you, ladies. To step up and run for Office or pick a friend and help her run for Office. Get out there, work hard, and win.
My name is Chelsea. I believe in the power of our union. And in 2018, I pledge to fight, organize, so that rural women have the power to determine our own lives -- to take back our voice and use our vote to move mountains.