Politics of Hope - reviving the dream of democracy

political leadership coach Donna Zajonc
Donna Zajonc
 

Political Leadership Coach

 

 

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ezine Politics of Hope from Donna Zajonc, Political Leadership Coach

A Story of Two Struggles
Aug. 25, 2004
Donna Zajonc

During my recent visit to Tunis, Tunisia, to co-lead a workshop for 60 Islamic women, I was inspired by the stories of the women and their challenges. Since returning I have continued to email with several women. In response to my request to learn more about one brave woman, I received this email from her. It is a typical tale of their struggles and extraordinary courage. I asked permission and was granted approval to share this story. For obvious reasons her name must be kept anonymous. I have retained many of her phrases and spellings just as she wrote them.

I am lawyer, and also I am consultant in human rights research and training. I love the training and I believe in the training capacity to change, to improve behaviours. I have good relations / contact with Arabic and African NGOs, human rights, women rights NGOS. I participate to lot of training of trainer about governance, leadership, poverty and gender, women rights. I've been candidate to the "parlement" / congress, in 1997. I didn't win but it was a very important experience for me. I've been member of the commission to control the elections in 1999. I am also member of ligue of human rights.

As a lawyer, now I am working on a very important problem which is considered taboo until now in my country: the forced disappearances of the victims family. It looks crazy, perhaps very dangerous!!!

There is lot of problems in my country, bad politic, bad governance; poverty, no work, no health, no free medias, no equality, women problems. I am really suffering about this situation, and I want to do something, but it's too hard, too complicate, I need different people to be with me: men, women strong and clever people.

My father was a very important politic figure during the war. After the end of war he was very disappointed about the quality of governance, he refused to participate to political life. He died when I was 4 years. I didn't know him very well, but my mother and lot of people tell me about him, about his courage, his nobility. I live in... I am married now, and I have two children ages 9 and 13.

Thank u donna, I promise to write to u every time I need help.

I still have tears which means we are very human. It's soo important to have tears to laugh, to cry, and of course to have faith and hope.

best whishes

AND THEN THIS: Recently sent to me from an American woman friend...

"By the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women. Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

The HBO movie, "Iron Jawed Angels" is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged. HBO will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video and DVD. I have not seen it but wanted to pass on the information.

These are two stories from different ages and cultures yet similar struggles. As my courageous Northern African friend says "It is so important to have tears, to laugh, to cry and to keep faith and hope."


Coming Soon: In the September Issue of this newsletter there will be special information about how to order a personally autographed copy of The Politics of Hope: Reviving the Dream of Democracy. Stay tuned!

Donna Zajonc is a Political Leadership Coach, a former three-term Oregon Legislator and was her party's nominee for Secretary of State. She has also managed several campaigns including a highly visible governor's campaign. Donna challenges her clients to prepare for public office with the same rigor that all professional seek. Her new book, The Politics of Hope: Reviving the Dream of Democracy will be available at the end of August, 2004.

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Donna Zajonc, political leadership coach
321 High School Road, Suite 295
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

Phone: 206.780.9900
Fax: 206.842.0296

Email: Donna@PoliticsofHope.com

 

Copyright ©2004 Donna Zajonc