twenty years ago today
I haven’t forgotten. What a shock it was, all our fears manifest at once. Fourteen young women, massacred for no other reason than being female! We were rocked to the roots by the proof of the pudding of fears our generation of women was fed, to wit: ‘don’t dare pursue your dreams, you’ll be killed if you do‘.
(In case you’re American or too young to remember, you can read all about it here.) Murder sucks for any reason, but random, gratuitous slaughter of the young, ambitious and promising is particularly horrifying.
The tragic irony of Tempest Gale’s murder in November just a few weeks before the twentieth anniversary of the Montreal Massacre just serves to stir the pudding. But dammit, change must come.
I recorded this song last night. It’s raw and rhythmically ragged, but a powerful version, I think; I was alone in the room and feeling emotional at the time. I wrote this just after the Montreal Massacre.
Actually, it was on the following International Women’s Day. Anne Cameron had come to Hornby and given a rockingly powerful talk at the Hall, after which I went out and bawled my head off in my car then wrote this song.
It hurts to sing, because after twenty years, so little has changed. Still, so many pointless losses, so few gains, politically speaking, socially speaking. Oh, women now have the right to go die with the boys in the sands of Afghanistan, I suppose. It was never my ambition to be Sgt Rock.
What about the girls who want to be world leaders, who want to put an end to war, who want to bring the Goddess (ie, the feminine principle, the Earth) into greater prominence, to balance with that old white beard in the sky? Where are they?
I’m sure (in fact, I really am sure) that big changes are happening, have happened, will happen. I’m just feeling sad right now. Grieving still, not just for what happened so long ago, but for what has happened so recently, and what will happen.
All the boys who have to grow up to fight and die even though they might rather be dancers or housewives. All the girls who grow up to be soldiers because they think that’s the only way to be equal. Gawd.
Here are the lyrics:
The Women Are Rising
The women are rising and changing their ways
Women stand up to be counted these days
The call’s going out on dream waves, rhythmic as a drum
Calling to me in my sleep and my waking, “Come
Come, come, come, come, come, come, come.”
With every living cell in my body, every beating of my heart
I fight the forces that held me for so very long apart
from my soul and my life.
But, oh, the force that keeps me here
is an ancient, paralyzing, ice-cold clutching fear.
The women are moving and learning new ways
Women stand up to be counted these days
The call is persistent and won’t be denied;
in the warm restless wind it blows
Insistent as passion, relentless as pride, I know
I know, oh I know, yes, I know.
With every living cell in my body, every beating of my heart
I know I belong to the Goddess awaking
To Her I pledge I’ll do my part
for Soul and for Life
But oh, to stand only to fall –
like the fourteen women students murdered in Montreal.
The women are raging and grieving today
Women are standing, and don’t go away
The call’s ringing out on the streets now,
new messages on the drum
The Mother is calling with a million voices, “Come!
Come, come, come, come, come, come, come!”
With every living cell in our bodies
every beating of our hearts
we’re living on levels beyond what we knew
as we pick the old patterns apart
of our souls and our lives.
But oh, the patience and the pain
and the too many pointless losses with every gain.
Link to the audio: listen here
