President’s Message
NWPC Fresno, Fifty Years of “Good Trouble”
This year our caucus is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of our founding. We will celebrate this event at our annual Women’s Equality Day Dinner (WED) to be held in August or September, depending on the availability of our soon to be announced speaker.
At the latest WED planning committee meeting we decided our theme for the event will be “NWPC Fresno, Fifty Years of Good Trouble.” You may recognize the phrase “good trouble” from the late Congressman John Lewis who said “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” Like many other like-minded social leaders, Lewis was encouraging action and peaceful, nonviolent activism in support of social justice and equality to fulfill our nation’s highest values and potential.
For the past fifty years NWPC Fresno has worked to engage our caucus and our members in “Good Trouble.” We have engaged in “active citizenship” in many ways over the decades. Let me mention some of our good deeds and the many ways we have supported good trouble and active citizenship.
We have supported women and children’s causes such as affordable, high-quality childcare; healthcare; and reproductive rights. We continue to stand up for abortion rights and the people who provide reproductive health care. In the face of opposition, we have never backed down from our support of these issues.
We have supported those who are under-represented in our society: the homeless, the poor, immigrants and the disenfranchised. We have spoken out for equal treatment and opportunities for women athletes; for marginalized ethnic and minority groups. We have welcomed and supported LBGTQ+ agencies, groups, individuals and candidates.
We may be best known for our endorsement of and financial support for women candidates running for local offices. We have supported front runners, previously elected officials, newcomers to elected office, and those who are underdogs. We support women candidates who share our values of equality for women and all people in our society; the passage of ERA; equal pay; reproductive rights; LGBTQ+ rights; and access to dependent care. We seek parity in elected office. We have staffed candidate phone banks, passed out flyers, written postcards, advocated legislation with legislators. At previous WED events we have recognized and honored elected officials and agencies who support our issues and have been leaders in our community.
Every month we have invited speakers to our meetings to help us learn more about and to better understand the issues, the agencies and the people of our community who may need our help and support. We have collected hygiene supplies and clothes for women Veterans; provided holiday gifts for for young women and girls who have been trafficked in our own communities; collected food for hungry college students; and provided volunteers for agencies who support the impoverished who live among us.
We have marched in parades in support of groups and issues, and we have joined community marches in opposition to injustice and in support of social justice in our community and our nation. Especially now, in our current reality, we must persist in standing up for ourselves and for those who need our support.
At our June meeting we will talk about some upcoming opportunities to participate in “Good Trouble.”
Let our work continue!
Lynn Badertscher
