We Survive with Community

We Survive With Community  

by Alex

Hi everyone,

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Alex, and I am one of the proud admins of our coalition and grassroots initiative – the Handmaids of MN.

I am a wife, a dog mom, a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a friend, a nurse and now a podcaster. I wear many different hats and own many diverse titles, and while I could rattle off an infinite list of who I am, you didn’t come here to listen to my resume of what makes me, me.

However, what you do get to hear from me – is that in less than a year, I have broken down everything that I was and am privileged enough to have become the best version of myself that I could ever have asked to be. And it all stems from what I call the fight of my life.

Exactly 8 months ago, back on March 8th, for International Women’s Day – our beloved organization, 50501: Minnesota hosted ‘Rise Up for Our Rights’ protest.

This marks the first protest I attended following the catastrophic events of re-electing a convicted felon and rapist into office.

This day will be a historical date for me, as this is the day that paved the way for us to be here, right now, standing in front of you, honoring you and this collective fight we’re in.

Where I stand now, speaking in front of you, is where I was born on that very first protest of the year. I attended this protest as “half a handmaid” – scared but ready to make a statement. Truthfully, I had more courage in my sign than my attire. And while I wasn’t wearing my wings, it was still known to those who knew what my partial attire was.

I stood on these steps, with tears streaming down my face, holding in front of me – a sign that stated, “when I was 16, my boyfriend told me it takes three no’s to get a yes.”
Keep in mind, I was 16 – and had no idea the detriments of what this statement meant, and the consequences of the actions tied to this. It only took until I was in my 30s to truly understand the gravity of what I went through and what all girls and women face daily.

This was the day where I can truly mark it as the defining date where everything changed.

From there, it only took one month after, for Hands Off to be held and that was the official day that the Handmaids of Minnesota was born.

It organically started with three committed women to fight in the way we knew how to fight. We donned our red cloaks, our white wings and we stood again on these steps to be heard through our silence and seen by our vibrant colors. We became the representation of the dystopian novel we all know too well that lays out the clear depiction of oppression.

While the world has only known oppression and has overlooked it through set privileges that we all carry … we have personally set out to make it known that we have a stake in this fight. We will stand on the right side of history and have vowed to make it known that we did not go quietly.

You’ve heard from Alex the Handmaid. I’d like to speak to you now, as Alex, the nurse.

As a nurse, I have been a fierce advocate for the clients I serve.
My mission was to at least make a difference for one person… and well I know that I’ve been beyond privileged in having the opportunity to do more than just that.
In my current career, I have worked as a Home Health Nurse and Clinical Manager for medically profound and complex individuals. My clients’ ages have ranged from being a little less than a year old all the way up to 70 years of age.

Each of these wonderful souls have a name… and not just a diagnosis.
And while I can’t pair names to these speeches, let’s talk about their diagnoses.
These clients of mine have tracheostomies, they have ventilators and feeding tubes. They have cancer that they are battling or thankfully may be in remission.
They have IVs and port accesses. They have seizure disorders.

They are dependent on having nursing support in their home to give them whatever semblance of a quality of life that we can offer them.
At least, that was the plan, and we were achieving just that, until this current regime stepped back into office with a vengeance.

We were warned in writing of Project 2025.

I want to be so wrong.

I would give every part of me to be wrong.

But we’re not. We’re not wrong.
This is in motion – the plan to decimate Medicaid.

Medicaid pays for my client’s livelihood.

A nation stripped of Medicaid will look like this –

Individuals of all ages, my children, your neighbors, your kids’ classmates, your grandparents or your parents – stripped of their health insurance.

Without Medicaid – my clients are at risk for losing their nursing.

Without Medicaid – my clients are at risk for losing access to life sustaining medications and clinical trials.

Without Medicaid – my clients are at risk for losing durable medical equipment, this being their ventilators, their trachs, their G-Tube’s…

Without Medicaid – we’ve offered up death sentences to children, teens, adults, older adults, veterans… We’ve signed their obituary with the blood on our hands to innocent lives.

Of all these lives I fight for – I would like to pay homage in recognizing that personally, the cuts to Medicaid will impact my siblings, my nephew, and my friends. I don’t know what will happen, and I can’t allow myself to think the worst… And even though I can’t think of the unimaginable, I know it’s horrific enough that I will fight with every ounce of my being to speak out, to give back, to educate and to support them through the unfathomable.

Whose life are you fighting for?

I didn’t fully understand this quote by Margaret Atwood, until we started experiencing it in real time. 

She wrote, “now I’m awake to the world. I was asleep before. That’s how we let it happen… When they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn’t wake up then, either. Nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bathtub, you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.”

You’ve heard from the handmaid, and the nurse – and lastly, I’ll speak to you – just as myself. A human, with a name and a story, standing in front of a crowd -- filled with beautiful and courageous individuals – some who I know and some who I hope to shake hands with after.

I stand before you, with this rallying cry of gratitude that screams from my soul.
We have awakened to a world for which we do not recognize. This is not the world we signed up to live in – but it’s a world we have decided, as a collective to fight for. Not because of a civic duty or obligation… but because it’s what you do, in a just cause to fight for humanity. For current and future generations. For ourselves.

While this feels more intense than just growing pains – this is what our evolution looks like. It takes all of us our unique gifts and how we can offer up our talents, our creativity, our wisdom, and our power to the world.

We survive with community.

My strength is measured by you all, showing up here today. Showing up every day, in the capacity that you’re able to offer.

I remind my friends that may not physically be able to offer up their services to protesting at national events or bridge brigades – that protest comes in many different forms.

Protesting at this time can be as simple as being JOYFUL, especially during times that you are being manipulated to break you of your happiness. So while you are showing me what you are physically capable – I want to remind you of all the joy you need to harness, store, seek out, and exude.
It is now our responsibility to continue to light up the world.

We show it in movements like No Kings – in a celebration of comradery, music, chants, speeches and dance.

We show it in honking and waving in solidarity passing by the lone member or groups of individuals holding signs on the corner.
We show it in random acts of kindness.

We show it in this fight, that we will not shy away from.

We will be seen.
We will be heard.
We will not go quietly.

Thank you for being a part of something that is bigger than all of us.

Don’t forget to stand up, speak out and fight back!