Passionate Politics, Potential Futures

    Today in class we watched the first part of a documentary called Passionate Politics about the life and works of Charlotte Bunch, an feminist activist on the international level.  Charlotte Bunch is known for her work to include lesbian issues in the feminist movement, being a strong advocate for coalition-building among different social movements, and bringing the slogan "Women's Rights are Human Rights" to the main-stage of the feminist movement and other international movements (although that quote is often attributed to Hillary Rodham Clinton).  Though I certainly wouldn't claim to be near Bunch's level, I saw a lot of similarities between her story and my story.

    In the documentary, Bunch discusses being raised in an activist household, one whose motive for service was derived from their Methodist faith.  I wouldn't call my house an "activist household," but I was definitely raised with that same sense of justice and fairness based upon my family's morals, which were more often than not faith-based.

    Through her church she was introduced to the idea of global service, and she went to college planning to be a missionary.  In that respect, Bunch and I are the same.  I knew of global service from my church and my family, and I fully intended to pursue a missionary career in which I could combine ministry, medicine, and foreign travel.  Coming into St. Olaf College, I was on the Pre-Medicine track with Biology and Spanish majors.

    In college, Bunch was exposed to the Civil Rights movement, and she was slowly radicalized.  Beginning with pray-ins at segregated churches and leading towards speeches at major rallies, Bunch became a true activist.  It wasn't until she graduated, married, and entered the workforce and graduate programs that Bunch became aware of the dire need for the Feminist movement as well.  Though I'm certainly not immersed in a social environment like that of the 1960s, there have been several things that have slowly radicalized me as a college student.  From classes that I have taken to situations I have encountered (like those I talked about in "Making a Sustainable Movement"), my time at St. Olaf has transformed me into a woman who understands much more of the realities facing the world and what I can do about them.

    After pursuing her activism in the U.S., Charlotte Bunch took on the ever-precarious effort for an international feminism.  Pursuing her initial desire to travel the world, but with a much different lens of how service ought to be, Bunch became a leading force for creating a global feminism.  Bunch worked on a macro-scale, engaging the United Nations, and on a micro-level, developing relationships by listening and learning from others.

    Next year, as I have mentioned before, I am moving to Mexico City with Young Adults in Global Mission.  As I prepare for that experience, I am channeling the ELCA's model of service:  accompaniment, which is "walking together in solidarity that is characterized by mutuality and interdependence."  Hopefully a mindset of servanthood through accompaniment will allow me to go out into the world and, like Charlotte Bunch, develop relationships of solidarity, ones that will teach me what global feminism can really look like.

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A footnote:  This is my last regular blog post of the semester; there will be an upcoming "Manifesta," but this is it for normal posting.  I hope you have enjoyed it - I sure have!