Giving Birth at 250 is FUCKING Brutal!
A July 4th Birthday Card to the WOMN of America from the WOMN of Minnesota
Today, America crosses the threshold of 250 years since its birth.
And we are giving birth to a New America.
We’ve been in labor for months.
We have to own this.
It’s time to push this baby out of our wombs
and hold HER skin to skin to our souls...
Kelly
The People are rising and lighting the way. We are the Americans that hold the spirit of what this country can be in our souls. No government, regime, or asshole gets to tell us how to think, nor how we choose to move in this world.
We guard this spirit with our lives. We will take care of our humans, and we will not be robbed of our joy in the process. We will sing, dance, rejoice, and love one another because this 250th birthday of America is not a death, it is a profound transformation, and we are the ones ushering that in.
Six months ago, ICE showed up on the streets on Minneapolis, and they were here to teach us a lesson. They were here to cause destruction, create chaos, and to sew more division.
We had lessons of our own to dish out. We are a kind, generous, and hearty people. But as the world has now experienced, we are also a people that will not stand by and let our neighbors be hunted. We are a people who will tell you “Hey Dude, I’m not mad” before being shot dead. We are not a people that run.
I’m one pissed off American right now. I have rage in one hand, tightly held in a balled up fist. But the other hand, that one is open and constantly extended, pulling anyone up that needs a hand. Both hands have a task. You can’t ignore the dark when searching for the light, you must acknowledge it. You must pierce that darkness, and that takes a lot of might. But together, we can do anything. We only need one pinprick and the light is there, ready to expand and flood the dark with its brightness. It all starts with that one pinprick.
The United States of America doesn’t feel so united these days. But, I invite you to zoom in. We’re usually told to zoom out... not this time. Zoom in!
Get local. Hyper local. The Magick that is happening on the local level, all over this country, is the true, and unbreakable spirit the citizens of this country carry.
We carry this spirit in our DNA. The blood of my Rosie The Riviter Grandma flows thru my body. We have generations of examples of how this America spirit continues to live in all of us. Immigrants make us the melting pot of America, words I was taught as a child. Words that are now sacred to me.
This spirit lives in the donations for rent money, in the supply drop-offs, in the groups of emotional support being formed. It’s alive in the schools where there is strong debate, and civil actions being taken by our children. It’s happening as neighbors meet, and ask “are you OK?” It’s happening in every single corner.
Fuck red or blue, the lesson is universal. We’re not colors, we’re humans.
They came to teach us a lesson. We learned the lessons, just not the ones they thought they could force onto us.
We learned that WE are America. We are showing one another what this country really is, daily. We are writing, speaking, yelling, protesting, praying, and connecting.
We are guarding the light. We are not dimming. We are not shrinking. We are certainly not surrendering. We are fucking Americans, so we are fighting! We are creating. We are profoundly shifting.
That’s cause for hope and celebration. Never forget how much one human can do to change the world. Now... activate all of us, and a new future will quickly be upon us.
Celebrate that.
~Kelly
TeriLeigh💜
We are fed up.
Not just me, but all the WOMN of Minnesota that I’ve been talking to and writing about for months.
You know that line about hell and wrath and a woman scorned? Yeah, that’s a tiny little campfire in a portable fire-pit compared to the barn-fire we have burning inside us these days.
But today I realized what this is that is burning inside us. I thought it was rage, but it’s bigger than that, and it’s growing. And kicking, and elbowing, and punching at the walls of our wombs.
We have been pregnant, for well over a year, and now we are getting ready to give birth to a New America! And now the contractions are starting, and we can’t complain about our backaches and our foot cramps anymore.
We’ve spent the last months getting all our screaming and raging and fighting and yelling and moaning and pissing out of our systems because this new baby demands all the things that WOMN know is the core of humanity.
Now listen, you all saw glimpses of this New America that is raging inside us to get out in Minnesota this winter. You saw us march 75,000 strong in 30 below zero temps. You watched our faith leaders get arrested while singing Amazing Grace while kneeling on the concrete at MSP in sub-zero temps. You watched our mothers and teachers and nurses chase ICE away from schools and bus stops while organizing food and supplies deliveries to tens of thousands of immigrant families who were sheltering in place.
And you watched Renee Good and Alex Pretti die.
That’s the kind of Fierce Love that is begging to be unleashed in America today.
And Kelly was right, it’s not about zooming out, it’s about zooming in. Zoom in to that itch and pain and ache happening inside you to be the antidote for all this cruelty. Get hyper-local.
Be a helper.
Be a lover.
Be a care-giver.
~TeriLeigh💜






I think you meant that ICE was there to sow division, not "sew."
But, I know that's nitpicking. Yet, I'm a copyeditor (among other things), so I notice those things!
Great article!
I can get behind these ideas.
I'm paying attention.
👍