Progressive is Not a Dirty Word

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.  -- Frederick Douglass

As a woman who has been denied rights and opportunities my entire life -- not allowed to play organized sports, no state championships for girls in indoor track, earning significantly lower income than male colleagues for the same work -- I feel a kinship with Mr. Douglass.

I believe the definition of "progressive" means that one doesn't think that our society has reached its full potential in terms of justice for all. We believe there is still room for improvement. It is shocking to me that in the 21st century, I have encountered blatant sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace. And these are just my experiences.

Slavery, lack of rights for women in countries where we went to war to "bring freedom and democracy," child labor, lack of environmental protections -- all exist around the globe.

None of us is free until all of us are free. That to me is the crux of the progressive mindset.

We can move forward as a society. We can do better. Shareholders in a company who make substantial profits off their investments while the workers who invested their sweat equity don't earn a living wage -- those shareholders have earned a false profit. CEOs who make tens of millions while the workers who make the products don't earn a living wage -- those CEOs' salaries are inflated on the backs of the workers.

When we ship manufacturing work to countries that don't pay fair wages, that use child labor, that pollute without regard for the next seven generations -- all those profits are false and borrowing from the future.

Yes, there is much progress to be made. Not just here, but all over the world. And progress doesn't happen, never has, without rain and thunder. I believe the Occupy movement has been that rain and thunder -- bringing attention to the inequities of the workplace. How banks get trillions in bailouts and still won't loan money to businesses that could create jobs, if only they could get a loan. How the tea partiers want to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and downtrodden -- the very people who did not create the financial crisis -- while maintaining tax breaks for the richest of the rich -- those who would feel no pain if their taxes increased by a couple of percentage points. How the entire system is tilted in favor of those who can afford to influence public policy with the money they made off the rest of us.

I am proud to be a progressive, because I am proud to be working toward a more just society, for all peoples in all corners of the world. As a progressive, I stand with those who fought for this country's freedom, who fought to abolish slavery, who fought for women's right to vote, who fought to build a safety net so no one would ever again starve to death or freeze to death in this country should they happen to be a victim of a recession or depression -- or post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of serving in yet another trumped up war, who fought for civil rights, who fought for the right for women to run the Boston marathon, who fought and continue to fight for the right of same sex couples to marry, who fought to bring about environmental protections so that we might possibly pass off an inhabitable world to our children's children.

I stand with Jesus of Nazareth, Martin Luther, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln,  Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, John Muir, Dorothy Day, Mother Jones, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Yes, I am proud to be a progressive. I am proud to be the rain and thunder. As a progressive, I stood up to my high school's athletic director and school board and demanded a track team for the girls -- because girls have as much right to compete and win as the boys. We won -- and girls have been striving and competing and realizing their full strengths and potential there for nearly four decades now.

But I am not done -- not as long as inequities still exist. Progress is a struggle, but we struggle on. Because we are progressives, and we believe we can do better than the status quo. We believe we can change the world, and that belief makes possible the seemingly impossible.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -- source unknown