Girl Power (5 page)

Kelly grinned and lifted her glass.

"To a beautiful, working friendship."

Kelly clinked her glass against Lindy's. "To friendship."

"Now, that we have that out of the way, what were the other things you

wanted to talk about?"

Kelly stared at Lindy and took a deep breath. "In our discussion last night two items kept popping up…"

Lindy waggled her eyebrows and gestured. "Go ahead."

Kelly played with her napkin. "Lindy, what's the party's position on choice and birth control?"

Lindy glanced around and shifted in her seat. "That's one of the main

reasons Sally and I are doing this—Roe v Wade is the law of the land and a

women's right to contraception and safe abortions should be inviolate. No one

has a right to go back forty, fifty even sixty years and change things to the years of back alley and coat hanger abortions."

Sal arrived and set two shallow bowls on the table. "Here're your Caesar

salads, ladies. Enjoy."

Kelly buttered a roll. "Yes, I think we all agree, but that position is going to preclude many pro-life women who are sympathetic to our cause. We may not

be pro-life, but there is something to be said for their argument."

Lindy nodded and took a bite of her salad.

Kelly inhaled deeply. "That's why we would like SAFE to be more than a

political party. We would like SAFE to be a mutual assistance movement. Is that

even possible?"

Lindy sipped her iced tea and buttered a slice of Italian bread. "I'm not sure I understand where you're going."

Kelly laughed. "I'm not either. Look, we agree if a woman positively wants

or has to have an abortion, that should be her right. But what if she isn't sure?

Could SAFE offer a support group for that? If she decides to put her baby up for adoption, could we offer pre-natal care, delivery and adoption matches though a

volunteer network? What about healthcare. If a member loses her healthcare, is

that something we could offer on a temporary or even permanent basis?"

"Hold on a minute. Everything you are asking is commendable, but we are

but six members. If we grew to several million, yes, we could do many things—

amazing things—and I think Sally and I would like that. I can even visualize an

employment service for our unemployed members and low cost child care."

Kelly set her fork down and folded her hands on the table. "Then it's up to me to see that we grow as fast as possible."

Lindy smiled and shook her head. "It's up to us."

"I suppose you need me to start fundraising for Sally too."

"That would be nice."

Kelly took a deep breath. "Obviously, I have my work cut out for me. Next

suggestion. We are going to need lots of money."

"That's for sure."

Kelly sipped her cocktail. "Then why don't we ask members to pay for their

membership."

"I don't know if we could. The other parties don't charge to belong."

"I'm not talking about registering to vote. That would still be free, but if you think about it. Once you register with a party, they bombard you with mailings

and emails for contributions. I'm talking about membership. After all, we're

thinking about providing services as well as supporting SAFE candidates. If

someone proposed membership in a political party that offers services including

low cost group health care, wouldn't you pop for twenty-five, fifty, or even a

hundred dollars a year?"

Lindy slowly shook her head. "I would, but some can't even afford twenty-

five a year."

Kelly pursed her lips. "That could all be worked out with exemptions for

those unemployed or living below the poverty level. Here's the thing. The two

established parties have networks funding them. Yes, they get money from their

voters, but the lion's share comes from rich, individuals, corporations, and

unions. While we may be able draw some contributions from corporations, we'll

never be able to match them. However, if we can sign up 25 million members

and 20 million of them pay twenty-five dollars, that's five hundred million."

Lindy wiped the imaginary perspiration from her brow. "Phew! That's a

nice start on being competitive. There's only one problem."

"What?"

"If we're going to field candidates for the upcoming election we need to get going now! We can't afford to wait while details are worked out about the

healthcare and other services."

"The details don't have to be worked out."

Lindy's set her arms on the table. "No?"

"No. The members only need to know we're working on them. They'll

understand this is a brand new movement and that'll take time."

~ * * ~

The Next Day

After speaking with Lindy about Kelly's suggestions, Sally rang their

lawyer.

"Jennifer Schmidt. Can I help you?"

"Hi Jenn, it’s Sally."

"Oh, hi Sally."

"I have Lindy with me. May I put the phone on speaker?

"Certainly."

"Okay, you're on speaker now."

"Hi, Lindy."

"Hi, Jennifer."

"Call me Jenn, please. What can I do for you ladies?"

"I'm going to defer to Lindy. Go ahead, Lindy."

"I met with Kelly last night and she told me you ladies discussed some

interesting concepts at her house after our luncheon the previous day."

"Yes, we talked quite a bit. What did you find interesting?"

"Issues aside, she described a concept where SAFE was more than a political party. She called it a mutual assistance movement."

"Yes, we talked about that. I believe it was Brenda's idea, but we all liked her suggestion the minute she started describing it."

"Could we legally do that?"

"I think so. It sounds logical and would be a big help to middle income and less fortunate women, but as you know when partisan politics and lobbying

come into play, laws don't always come out logical."

"Is there somewhere you could check or somewhere you could get an

opinion?"

"I'll check around and see if there are any glaring prohibitions against such things, and if not, I'll double-check with a Georgetown law professor I'm friendly with." "Oh, thank you, so much? Sally and I will wait to hear from you."

"No problem." Jen paused. "Ah, Sally?"

Sally leaned toward the phone. "Yes?"

"You know the Democrats and Republicans will come down hard on us."

Sally laughed. "The fact that we're wooing their women members away,

that's a given, but…nothing worth doing is ever easy."

"I guess you're right. We're in for the fight of our lives so we may as well go for everything we can. I'll get right on this and let you know in a day or two."

"Thanks. Oh, Jenn, before we hang up there's something else I want you to

do." "What's that?"

"With all the gerrymandering and redistricting that's going on, many

women are likely to be left out in the cold. There are probably good women who

lost primaries and who are just plain disillusioned with their party's policies

toward women. I want to recruit some of them. SAFE should run candidates

clear down to mayors and city councils. So I need a list of them. Can you do it?

"Gee, Sally, I'd have to go full time to do all that and even then…"

"Could you hire some interns from local colleges?"

"Good idea. What would we pay them?"

"Jenn. Lindy here. For other similar positions, we're offering minimum

wage plus five dollars an hour. How does that sound?"

"Hmm—over twelve dollars an hour. I think I can get all the help we need."

~ * * ~

Brenda opened the door into Lindy's office a couple feet and peeked in. "Hi, Lindy."

Lindy looked up and smiled. "Brenda. I was just thinking of you."

"You were?"

"Yes. Well, more like our dinner engagement with the reporter and what I'm

going to wear. What are you going to wear?"

"Good, that's part of the reason I'm here—to make sure we're still on. I

picked Gringo's precisely so I wouldn't have to worry about changing."

Lindy scanned Brenda. She looked good in her black knee length skirt and

long sleeved, black, white and light sienna, blouse. Her oufit off her smooth

caramel skin and obsidian eyes. She'd tied back her dark brown ringlets tied back with a wide matching hair ribbon. Yes, Brenda looked good. "That's easy for you to say. You look like you stepped off the cover of Essence while I…"

"Your burgundy pants suit's just fine."

Lindy shrugged. "If you say so. What's the other reason you're here?"

"Our social media accounts. Like Sally and you wanted, I set up Twitter and Facebook accounts, and hired a girl to help me run them."

"Good. How're they doing?"

"Mara, that's the girl I hired to be our eyes and ears on the social networks, says that interest among women is sky-high. She wants to know when we are

going to start taking members"

"We have that much interest already? We haven't been up that long, have

we?" "No we started late yesterday, but word seems to be spreading. She said we have a thousand friends on Facebook and even more followers on Twitter."

Lindy ran her fingers through her short black hair. "Really? We're not ready to accept members yet. I've been holding off until we get our platform posted on our website."

"Just get something out for now. It doesn't have to be fancy. Women know

we're doing this for them."

~ * * ~

Lindy barged into Sally's office. "Sally, we need to call a meeting

tomorrow."

"What for?"

"There are women clamoring to join SAFE and we don't have a platform

yet." Sally buried her head in her hands. "This is moving much too fast."

"Is that bad?"

"Of course not. There are only six of us right now, and you and I are the

only ones connected to politics. I'd hoped to have a score or so of candidates, to form a platform committee, before we got into the nuts and bolts of the party."

"Then do it that way."

"Make up your mind."

"This isn't a chicken/egg thing. Kelly said, 'We're not dealing from politics as much as we're dealing in fair treatment for women,' and she's right. Brenda

said, 'Just get something out for now. It doesn't have to be fancy. Women know

we're doing this for them,' and she's right. All we need is an outline."

Sally pushed her chair back and suddenly stood. "Lindy, I got it! We start

with WOMEN'S BILL OF RIGHTS."

Lindy's eyes widened. "That's perfect. We'll have a meeting to decide a

women's bill of rights."

Sally raised her gaze. "We don't have time for a meeting. You and I can hash out a basic list of musts for women. That would allow us to start taking

members. If some of our new members have good ideas we can add them to the

bill. Take a seat."

Lindy pulled a chair closer to Sally's desk.

"Here's a tablet. Write these down."

Lindy looked up. "I'm ready, go ahead."

Sally eased closer to the desk. "Okay, the most important right, the one all the other rights would be based upon is fairness. 'Men and women are created

equal. Therefore they must be treated equally'."

Lindy wrote that down. "Yes, that's a must. How about, 'Any legislation

which affects women must be initiated by at least one woman."

"Yes, I like that. If a law like that were in effect, I doubt we would have all these cockamamie new laws. Here's an obvious one. 'The workplace must be free

of sexual harassment and discrimination against women'."

Lindy wrote that down then said, "Here's a corollary to that one.'Men and

women must receive equal pay for the same job'."

"Yes, the Fair Pay Act. Let's see, how about, 'Women can join any club or

organization she chooses (No all male clubs)'."

Lindy laughed, "Whoowee! Wouldn't that irritate the men?"

"You think that goes too far?"

Lindy wrote it down. "Heck no. When dealing with women's rights, I don't

think we can go too far. And I hope it, excuse my French, pisses them off. What

other goodies do you have?"

Sally took a deep breath. "Here's one that will drive conservative men batty.

'Women should be entitled to paid motherhood leave of up to two years and be

able to return to the same or higher position'."

Lindy raised her eyebrows. "I like it, but a law like that might have

unintended consequences."

"Like what?"

"Employers might resist employing women of child bearing age. After all,

there's a possibility they could be stuck with a fifty to a hundred thousand dollar obligation per childbirth."

"We wouldn't want that. We'll have to put more thought into that one

before we include it."

"I agree. Here's one that always bothered me. 'Women shall not be charged

or be required to pay more for a service or product than men'."

"Yes, that's a keeper. That's enough for now. Write that down and give the

list to Brenda. Have her add the list to our website and start building a

membership."

~ * * ~

Walking through Gringo's, Brenda felt a tickly stab in her chest when she

spotted Mickey waiting for them in a booth. She couldn't see his socks, but she

grinned that, as promised, he wore a pink tie.

He saw her, smiled and waved.

Lindy touched her elbow and pointed. "He's over there."

"Yes, I see him."

As they approached, he stood. Mickey embraced Brenda and her heart

thumped loud and clear. Regaining her breath, Brenda introduced Lindy,

"Mickey, this is Lindy Rollins, Sally's friend and campaign manager."

Mickey stuck out his hand. "Yes, we met briefly at a campaign event a