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No matter what happens with Hillary’s campaign, as far as I’m concerned, this is the year of the woman, and yesterday’s annual Women’s Day Breakfast in Lowell brought that message home. I’ve attended this annual breakfast for years, and it’s always a good time—yesterday felt different though. There was a palpable sense of power from the hundreds of women gathered at the tables—women who make a difference every day in our communities—women who are changing our world.  It was nice to see Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, always a regular at the breakfasts, in her new role as the first female representative from the fifth district in decades. It was also an honor to hear First Lady Diane Patrick’s moving story about a “simple act of kindness” that changed lives. She ended by quoting from Maya Angelou’s poem:
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 11:02 pm and is filed under In the News, Local Groups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.