1
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Tell your daughters of this year,

2
00:00:03,280 --> 00:00:05,376
how we woke needing coffee

3
00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:09,216
but discovered instead cadavers
strewn about our morning papers,

4
00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:14,040
waterlogged facsimiles
of our sisters, spouses, small children.

5
00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:18,216
Say to your baby of this year
when she asks, as she certainly should,

6
00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:19,816
tell her it was too late coming.

7
00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:24,296
Admit even in the year we leased freedom,
we didn't own it outright.

8
00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:27,136
There were still laws
for every way we used our privates

9
00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:29,656
while they pawed at the soft folds of us,

10
00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,415
grabbed with no concern for consent,

11
00:00:32,439 --> 00:00:35,056
no laws made for the men
that enforced them.

12
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We were trained to dodge,

13
00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:40,136
to wait, to cower and cover,

14
00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:43,056
to wait more, still, wait.

15
00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:44,960
We were told to be silent.

16
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But speak to your girls of this wartime,

17
00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,296
a year preceded by a score of the same,

18
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:52,576
so as in two decades before,

19
00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:54,136
we wiped our eyes,

20
00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:56,056
laced caskets with flags,

21
00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:58,256
evacuated the crime scene of the club,

22
00:00:58,280 --> 00:00:59,576
caterwauled in the street,

23
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,896
laid our bodies on the concrete
against the outlines of our fallen,

24
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cried, "Of course we mattered,"

25
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chanted for our disappeared.

26
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The women wept this year.

27
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They did.

28
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In the same year, we were ready.

29
00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:15,256
The year we lost our inhibition
and moved with courageous abandon

30
00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:17,776
was also the year we stared down barrels,

31
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sang of cranes in skies,
ducked and parried,

32
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caught gold in hijab,
collected death threats,

33
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knew ourselves as patriots,

34
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:27,216
said, "We're 35 now, time we settled down
and found a running mate,"

35
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made road maps for infant joy,
shamed nothing but fear,

36
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called ourselves fat and meant, of course,

37
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impeccable.

38
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This year, we were women,

39
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not brides or trinkets,

40
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not an off-brand gender,

41
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not a concession, but women.

42
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Instruct your babies.

43
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Remind them that the year has passed
to be docile or small.

44
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Some of us said for the first time
that we were women,

45
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took this oath of solidarity seriously.

46
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Some of us bore children
and some of us did not,

47
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and none of us questioned
whether that made us real

48
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or appropriate or true.

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00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,776
When she asks you of this year,

50
00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:02,705
your daughter, whether your offspring
or heir to your triumph,

51
00:02:02,729 --> 00:02:05,736
from her comforted side of history
teetering towards woman,

52
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:08,056
she will wonder and ask voraciously,

53
00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,015
though she cannot fathom your sacrifice,

54
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she will hold your estimation of it holy,

55
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curiously probing, "Where were you?

56
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Did you fight?
Were you fearful or fearsome?

57
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What colored the walls of your regret?

58
00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,936
What did you do for women
in the year it was time?

59
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This path you made for me,
which bones had to break?

60
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Did you do enough, and are you OK, momma?

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00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:29,376
And are you a hero?"

62
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She will ask the difficult questions.

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She will not care
about the arc of your brow,

64
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the weight of your clutch.

65
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She will not ask of your mentions.

66
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Your daughter, for whom you have
already carried so much, wants to know

67
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,896
what you brought, what gift,
what light did you keep from extinction?

68
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When they came for victims in the night,

69
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did you sleep through it
or were you roused?

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What was the cost of staying woke?

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What, in the year we said time's up,
what did you do with your privilege?

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Did you sup on others' squalor?

73
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Did you look away
or directly into the flame?

74
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Did you know your skill
or treat it like a liability?

75
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Were you fooled by the epithets
of "nasty" or "less than"?

76
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Did you teach with an open heart
or a clenched fist?

77
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Where were you?

78
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Tell her the truth. Make it your life.

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Confirm it. Say, "Daughter, I stood there

80
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with the moment
drawn on my face like a dagger,

81
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:14,016
and flung it back at itself,

82
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slicing space for you."

83
00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,296
Tell her the truth, how you lived
in spite of crooked odds.

84
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Tell her you were brave,

85
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and always, always
in the company of courage,

86
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mostly the days
when you just had yourself.

87
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Tell her she was born as you were,

88
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as your mothers before,
and the sisters beside them,

89
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in the age of legends, like always.

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Tell her she was born just in time,

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just in time

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to lead.

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(Applause)