On the Ground in Jackson, Miss.: An Interview With Michelle Colon, Pres. of the Jackson Chapter of NOW (National Organization for Women), conducted 7/15/06 by WCW organizer Leah Fishbein.
How did you get involved with the pro-choice struggle, in general and specifically with Jackson NOW [Nat’l Organization of Women]?I grew up in Miami, in a single parent home, and I was born an activist. So I know what it’s like to see a woman not eat so that her kids can eat. And I’ve seen women who were sexually assaulted carry their pregnancies to term. I’ve had friends that committed suicide or inflicted harm on themselves when they found out they were pregnant. They couldn’t tell their parents, or they didn’t have any money to get an abortion. I can’t believe the system we live in – with government steadily cutting programs for single women and their children – and now they want to take away our right to abortions? I don’t believe anyone has the right to tell another person how to live their life, that’s not an idea I subscribe to. Specifically, I’ve been involved in Jackson NOW since 1998. When you’re poor, and a person of color, you have no choice but to be an activist. It’s all about survival.
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What do you think the rest of the week will look like in Jackson?
I think the pro-choice movement will do us proud, in its numbers, in raising awareness and in creating support. We will triumph, but we have to remember that we are not the clinic bombers, the ones who kill doctors or maim clinic escorts.
What do you think this week will mean for the rest of the country? Do you think this is a localized struggle or part of a bigger picture?This is a very local struggle, but it will mean a lot of for the rest of the country, because here, just like across all the other red states, there’s no comprehensive sex ed, it’s all abstinence only education. The access to contraceptives isn’t good at all, and there are almost no [abortion] clinics left in Mississippi.What do you think the national political climate is like right now? And what are you thinking, in these times of unprecedented attacks on women’s rights, among other things–attacks on immigrants, the LGBT community, the Middle East, science and the environment?I think this country needs a wake up call, and this is it. Get in the streets. We need the civil rights activists. We need the unions. We need all the help we can get and we need to unite on this issue of women’s reproductive rights, because no one else is gonna do it for us. The Democrats don’t have our backs. The ones that claim to be pro-choice – Governor Blanco in Louisiana, for example – they’re obviously not the ones who are going to fight on this for us, because they’re selling us out on so many things, from LGBT issues to social programs.
So what needs to happen to dramatically change this direction society is going in? Do you indeed think we need to drive out the Bush Regime?Oh yeah. I think this bus tour you guys are doing is great. You all have been going to communities that have been left off that map, left for “red states.” We need to get back to stuff like you all are doing, get back to the grassroots. When I found out some of the places you were going”[Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana] People in those places need to see this kind of hope. In these red states, most progressive people feel, they really feel like they are the “only ones” [opposed to the way society is being reformed]. And they’re not. And yes, we need to get them out, and this is the first step for us”The pro-choice movement in Jackson really came out of the closet on this one.What kind of role do you think the Christian Fundamentalists are playing in creating this new direction for society?Oh, they’re totally tied up in the attack. And the attack on all of us, the ones they call the unholy alliance, the deviants. The want us rounded up, by the government, all the ones they consider the most vulgar parts of society. These fundamentalist Christians are to Christianity what the Muslim terrorists are to Islam.