bringing dinner back

Gathering to honor women on Mockingbird Bridge at White Rock Lake

I grew up a middle-class family in small-town Texas. My dad called me Princess and Blue Eyes. I wanted to be the first female quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys so my dad tossed the football with me for hours in the yard to practice.

I was never stoned or had acid thrown in my face because my dad heard rumors that I kissed a boy. I was never sold into sexual slavery because my parents needed money and were too uneducated to ask questions. I have never had my genitals cut out because my parents felt I couldn’t be married otherwise.

I graduated from college and traveled around Europe in my mid-20s, never afraid to try anything because my mother taught me to speak up for myself. I married the man I love, gave birth to two healthy boys with excellent medical care, and make a living working out of my home that has running water and electricity.

I have never been raped while gathering water for my family. If I were raped, my husband would not abandon me. I’ve never suffered a fistula — from rape or a dangerous childbirth — leaving my body uncontrollably leaking urine and feces. I’ve never been put on the outskirts of my town by my family for the wild animals to kill because of a fistula.

As Clyde told our boys, you don't have to be a woman to support women.

I am lucky. Because all those things that have never happened to me — or to you or to any woman or girl you love — happen every day in other parts of the world, most often in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, as reported by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn in their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Kristof and WuDunn’s book and organizations like Women for Women International are bringing attention to International Women’s Day on its 100^th anniversary today. Women for Women, which connects women in the Western world with women in war-torn countries, is bringing together women from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on a bridge that connects their two countries. This peaceful joining of hands is a symbol of bridging the countries’ differences and ending the war that has plagued the region since the Rwandan genocide in 1994 that killed almost one million people spilled over into Congo, killing another 5.5 million.

Women (and men) will gather on bridges elsewhere in the world, too. You’ll find me on Mockingbird Bridge over White Rock Lake in my very first celebration of International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day was first celebrated in Europe in 1910 and is now an official holiday in 15 countries. Yet in the United States, where we buy greeting cards for pet birthdays and kindergarten graduations, it goes by without notice.

My friend Gorethy shared her experiences in Congo, then held hands with us as we honored women worldwide.

Gorethy Nabushosi, a Congolese attorney who fought for women’s rights in her home country and now lives in McKinney, has a theory about why American women haven’t historically celebrated this day — because they have a voice and freedom.

Gorethy is the founder of Congo Restoration, which pairs orphans with brutalized women, giving the children a stable home, the women an income and — most importantly — a respectable place within a society that considers them among its lowest members.

“We [Congolese] try hard to break the silence about all the rape, the sexual slavery, but the entire world remains in silence. Congolese blood is in the street, and no one says anything. It is so painful. You have no idea.”

Gorethy will be on the bridge with me.

I am humbled by women like Gorethy, by the women in Congo, by the women who came before me to make my life what it is. And on International Women’s Day, I will stand in unity with the millions of others around the world who are waiting for me do the same for them. I am lucky. I do have a voice. And I intend to use it.

Women in Nigeria celebrate Int'l Women's Day

And in Canada

And in Scotland

And in NYC