I believe in the power of Ants !
Most people think the ants are some kind of dumb insects that spend
their whole life working, not even for themself, don't enjoy any moment of it, and always pop up on
your sandwich just when you wonder why you had come to hate the
summer. They don't have any personnality, they do what they were told
to do without wondering, and they don't even bother about their own
death. Yep, that's what most people think...
I think the ants are probably the most calm and efficient beings in the
Univers, and I really try to be like them.
Why ? Because, if it's true that the ant spends her like working, just
like everyone of us, the difference is that she ACCEPTS it. She knows
that her work has to be done and she does it.
As a lesbian activist I have many different activities. All are tiring,
all take me a lot of time I could spend for myself. But since I
developped some kind of ant philosophy, I feel much more calm.
Let me explain. As a lesbian, I choose to devote a part of my time to
the building of my community. It's almost a full-time job. It's
sometimes tiring, sometimes depressing. But it has to be done.
On week-ends I work at a lesbian bar, and a the monthly parties we
organize, I'm part of the association that will organize the Lesbian
and Gay Pride in my town... On weekdays I'm on IRC, trying to explain
to the dayly hundreds of guys who think their dick is a key to every door
that when lesbians create a girl-only space, they have to respect
it, or comforting frightened young lesbians who feel isolated in a
world that rejects them... I'm a full time lesbian activist.
And many times I was told "[I admire you because/I don't understand why]
you spend so much energy and love for [machist dummies who will never
understand what you say because they feel good oppressing
women/lesbian sluts who will use you and never understand what
sisterhood means]". The people who say that are probably right but
hey... you don't build an anthill in one day... and sometimes rain
destroys all you work...
That's always what I feel like answering, because we need to build this
damn community, and all those machos/homophobic assholes/self-hating
lesbians they are like rain so we have to be like ants, and keep on
building, no matter what happens to us. And if we accept that we will have to work all our life, not
just for ourself but for all our sisters, not with a selfish but
universal mind, with the only reward of seeing our anthill
growing slowly but surely, I think we will have won. We won't regret
the energy we spend because it won't be lost, we won't have to fear
our "activist death" (i.e. getting fed up of saying endlessly that
being a lesbian is just a different way of loving, not a sin, and no
I'm not a slut, and no I don't hate men... see my lesbians FAQ, and
finally decide to live for ourself),
because if we give up, if we die, another ant will replace us and go
on.
And our world will change. (oh you can laugh if you want to !)
I'm an ant in the lesbian community, the homosexual community, the
human community, and I really feel better knowing it (and I will always pop up on
your sandwich just when you wonder why you had come to hate our
homophobic/machist/unfair world as it is !). I believe in the power of
ants !
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