I have spent the last three years immersed in a book on the life of Bella Abzug (1920-1998), the peace activist, feminist, civil rights lawyer, and fearless congresswoman from New York. (She ran for office for the first time at age 50 – take heed, sister Boomers!) Now that it is about to come out, I am hoping that her passion will galvanize the cynical among its readers, the way she did me. Bella’s example literally got me through the recent political years of double-talk, triangulation, and – to use the worst expletive that Bag Daddy (in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”) could come up with – “men-dah-sity!”
She had such profound faith in democracy and the Constitution that whether she was on the outside protesting or on the inside crafting legislation and twisting arms, she remained optimistic that justice would triumph. All it took was smarts, passion, coalition-building and never, ever, giving up.
She spoke up for the dispossessed and spoke out against bigotry and war. She also spoke foul language to anyone and yelled at everyone. Norman Mailer – no fan – once said that she had a voice that would “boil the fat off a taxi driver’s neck.” But most of all, she spoke truth to power.
Listen to the still-timely words of a passionate politician, a devoted wife and mother, and tireless reformer and ask yourself “What would Bella do today?”
I always feel that there is a sign of someone believing someone is equal when they’re willing to take you on – beat you up, instead of just making you feel like a fool.
I wrote a letter to the school saying, “I do not give permission for my children to duck under the desk [in civil defense drills] It is psychologically maiming; it’s totally political; and I think it’s insane to do it.” My kids used to say, “But nobody else thinks that way, Mom.” And I’d say, “They will. Don’t worry. They will.” I was hard on my kids.
I challenge the system – as a lawyer and as a member of Congress and as an activist in the movements of change. I’ve challenged all systems – the family, I never obeyed my father properly. In school I challenged. In the streets, I challenged the monopoly of what the boys thought that girls couldn’t participate in. I’ve spent a lifetime in challenge. There’s no way in which you can create any meaningful change unless you do that.
I have always enjoyed working with women because there are fewer boundaries and impediments and areas of potential conflict. It is always easier to come to a confluence of opinion.
Although women represent 53 percent of the electorate, there are only thirteen of us in Congress. The country has twenty-two million black citizens and there and only a dozen black congressmen. There are no artists, intellectuals, scientists, mathematicians, creative writers, architects, Vietnam veterans, musicians, and not even any leaders of the labor movement on Capitol Hill. There are no young people. The average age of a congressman is 51.9 years, and a senator, 56. Two-thirds of these people are lawyers, businessmen, or bankers. No wonder Congress is such a smug, incestuous, stagnant institution! It reeks of sameness.
My reputation is that of an extremely independent woman, and I am. But I was dependent, clearly, on [my husband] Martin [who died ten years before Bella]. He would embrace me in his furry chest and warm heart and protect me from the meanness one experiences in the kind of life I lead.
BELLA ABZUG: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way An oral history by Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.