catapult magazine

This was not always the case

by Meredith Kathryn-Case Gipson Hoogendam

Dear Sojourner,

It might seem strange, getting a letter from your great-grandmother out of the blue like this. I know it’s not your birthday yet, but it will be soon. Before you realize it, you’ll be eighteen and able to vote. I can hardly believe how much the world has changed since you (and your mother and grandmother, for that matter) were born. I know you’ve heard me quote Gloria Steinem (remember her? I’ve told you) a few times-“the political is personal” and all that. You’ve also heard the original, I hope: “the personal is political.” Well, I can’t even begin to tell you how true those statements are, and that’s why I’m writing you.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the year 2008, a few years before your grandma was born. I was living in Canada with your great-grandfather then, and frankly, I was glad to be north of the U.S. border, as we had just gone through eight years of a presidential leadership that left us with little more than a recession and a bloody war in the country of Iraq (which is now part of the United Republic of Saudi Arabia, as you know it). Needless to say, the presidential election of 2008 was one of the most pivotal elections of all time. I know it seems unbelievable now, but at that point in history we had never had an African American (or woman, for that matter) as president. Also likely unbelievable to you was the way we thought about the environment and global warming; we treated the world as if it was going to go on just fine with all our pesticides and coal-powered plants and carbon emissions (this was before the Universal Environmental Treaty of 2020, remember). At that time, the United States was known as a “superpower,” and because of that the world paid close attention to our political situation. Crazy as it seems, this was the first time I watched the election results come in over the Internet (people still owned televisions sets at that time). The world as it was then would be unrecognizable to you now, seventy years later, and many of those changes can be related directly to the results of that election.

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Since 2008, you have seen a diversity of people in the office of president-African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, the visibly disabled, a blind man, a deaf woman, a transgendered person and even a couple of older Caucasian men. You have witnessed the deconstruction of a superpower and the reconstruction of the environment. You inherited a world in which all nuclear weaponry has been dismantled, and a Universal Peace Accord was reached with the signatures of every single leader of every single nation on Earth. You ride horseback or use GreenFuel, and eat food grown by your parents and your neighbors. Africa, to you, is a continent to emulate in terms of politics, economics and healthcare. You have only heard of AIDS in history books, and the notion of equating one’s worth with one’s religious beliefs is ridiculous and barbaric to you. The date September 11 sticks in your mind because it is your parents’ wedding anniversary. The only connection you have with the “War on Terror” is the movie you watched in American History when your teacher took a sick day. The idea of a little girl being denied access to education because of her sex or of a little boy being forced to fire a machine gun because of his ethnicity is incomprehensible to you. In your world, water is clean, air is pure, and neighbors do not fear neighbors. This was not always the case.

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Since 2008, you have seen several kinds of people in the office of president, but most of the presidents in your lifetime have been Caucasian men. You have witnessed the deconstruction of one superpower and the construction of another. You inherited a world in which nuclear weapons inhabit the nightmares of children, and a Universal Peace Accord is laughable. You drive a car when you can afford it, you have never flown in an airplane and you have never dirtied your hands in a vegetable garden. Africa, to you, is a continent to pity in terms of politics, economics and healthcare. You have witnessed the ravaging effects of AIDS on your loved ones, and the notion of equating one’s worth with one’s religious beliefs is reflective of the ideology upon which most governments are founded. The date September 11 sticks in your mind because it is your parents’ wedding anniversary and the date on which your nation’s history is divided. The only connections you have with the “War on Terror” are the movie you watched in American History, the censorship of your school and local libraries, the paranoia of your classmates and the myriad types of governmental surveillance that surround you. The idea of a little girl being denied access to education because of her sex or of a little boy being forced to fire a machine gun because of his ethnicity is all too real to you. In your world, water is expensive, air is toxic and neighbors fear neighbors. This was not always the case.

*

Sojourner, I hope you see what I’m getting at. There will assuredly be times when you feel like your vote doesn’t count or your voice isn’t being heard, but those are the very same moments when your opinion matters most. Don’t be fooled: history isn’t a set of biased stories agreed upon by those in power; history is the very thing you are making with the chords of your voice and the movement of your feet. Please forgive me if I sound preachy-that’s something great-grandmothers are allowed to do.

Until next time,

G.G.