Authors: Dee Dawning
you to donate—if you can—what you can.
"Kelly, your husband is rich, and together you have many wealthy contacts.
That's why we're naming you our Treasurer and Chairwoman for fundraising."
Kelly grinned. "I was hoping you'd ask me. I already do fundraising for
many charities and believe me, I have connections." She laughed. "In fact, as a charter member of SAFE, my husband has agreed to make SAFE's first
donation—the sum of $100,000."
All mouths dropped open with accompanying gasps.
"I don't—"
Lindy held up her hand. "Please Jennifer. This is what Sally and I want. Ten hours of charity a week is enough, from what Sally says you have a family. You
have bills to pay and mouths to feed."
Jennifer smiled. "I'm used to long hours. I'll keep track of my hours, but I'll only report them if I need money."
"And that leaves Brenda. Sweetie, you will continue your normal job on my
staff, but, in addition, we want you to be our public relations person. You will arrange for getting one or both of us TV guest spots, magazine interviews, town
hall meetings, etc."
Lindy added. "We'll also need you to work closely with Kelly on
fundraisers."
Brenda took a deep breath. "I'm kind of inexperienced, but it sounds like
fun. What about a website? We'll definitely need a website."
"Lindy has already made one. Tell them Lindy."
"Sure. Ladies our website is www.safe.gov. Sally's email is [email protected] and mine is [email protected]. You will all be given similar emails so let me know how you want your name displayed.
"How about social media and a blog?" Brenda added, "Those would really help to get the word out."
"I agree," said Sally, "Lindy and I discussed that, but it's out of our realm of expertise. Carla, could you set up and operate the blog? I can contribute an
occasional piece, plus I'd like to have politicians contribute guest blogs."
"No problem, boss."
"Good and as for Twitter and so forth, can you get that going, Brenda?"
"I'd love to, but it could become a handful with all my other work."
Lindy leaned forward placing her arms on the table. "When it gets to be too much to handle, hire someone to monitor them, but make sure you keep an eye
on what we're sending out."
~ * * ~
Sally and Lindy remained after the others and had another drink. "What do
you think, Lindy?"
"I think they're great. Couldn't ask for better members to start. I am
disappointed in you though."
Sally's eyebrows arched. Stiffening, she pointed at her chest. "Me? What
for?" "You started this whole women’s party thing because the Democratic Party wouldn’t support you to run for the U.S. Senate and now that you will have a
party's support you’re not even running.”
"Didn't you hear what I said? They would super-PAC the hell out of me."
"Sweetheart, you are one of the smartest women I know. You are the perfect
candidate, and your constituents love you. You should run against Winston and
Mannogue for that senate seat. They are going to super-PAC all of us. We are a
mortal threat to politics as they know it, so you may as well get used to it. I
would like to see you be SAFE's first candidate for national office. That alone
would give us national exposure that would take hundreds of thousands of
advertising dollars to match."
"You make some good points. However, I figure I'll be buried getting SAFE
up and running."
Lindy picked up and bit the end off a chip. “Nothing you could do here
would advance our agenda, more than having a candidate for national office."
Sally swallowed the last of her not so frozen margarita. "Would you be my
campaign manager?"
Lindy smiled. "If you'll have me."
Sally laughed. "When did you turn comedian? Let's go to my office. I want
to compare the pros and cons."
It certainly must have been a relief for the women of the country to realize that one could be a woman and a lady and yet be thoroughly political.
–
Agnes E. Meyer
Sitting at her desk the next day, the phone rang. "Good morning. Lindy
Rollins, can I help you?"
"Hi, Lindy, this is Carla."
"Hi, Carla. What's up?"
"I'm about to email you a press release I just wrote, announcing the
formation of SAFE and brief synopsis of what we are and what our goals are.
"That's great. I can't wait to read it, but before you send it, I need you to amend something."
"What do you mean?"
"I need you to add that Sally Cummings, our first candidate, of hopefully
many, will be running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Dan Mannogue."
Carla was silent at the other end, and then laughed. "Sally's running?"
"Ah-huh."
"That's fantastic. She'll make a great Senator."
Lindy's door opened slightly and Kelly peeked in. Lindy waved her in and
covered the mouthpiece of the handset. "Hi, Kelly, come on in." She pointed to a seat in front of her desk. "Have a seat, I'm almost done."
Kelly smiled, nodded and crept in quietly, as if she were a burglar. Sitting
on the closest chair, she placed her arms on the armrests and waited for Lindy to finish.
"Carla, Kelly just came in, so I have to go."
"No problem. That's all I had to say. I'll get right on the addition and email you the revised release."
"Thanks. Make sure you send a copy to Sally, too."
"Will do."
"Thanks for calling, Carla."
"Bye."
Lindy hung up the phone and turned her attention to her visitor, who
looked great in a coral and blue floral ensemble—low cut, knee length dress and
cardigan with matching three-inch heels. "Good morning, Kelly."
"Hi, Lindy."
"You look like you're going to be in a fashion show. I'll bet you were a
beauty queen when you were young."
"Not really. My father would never have any of that. Everything is so casual these days; I just like to dress up. I was a model though, when I was younger. I guess I never got over wearing nice clothes."
Lindy panned Kelly. "Well, you look very nice. Tell me, what brings you
here?"
"I have some things to tell you."
Lindy dipped her head. "Yes?"
"First, when we left our luncheon yesterday, we girls were so wound up, we
went to my home and discussed our brand new women's political party at
length."
Lindy leaned back in her executive chair. "What did you talk about?"
Kelly crossed her well-turned legs. "First of all, I should tell you we are all thrilled. We are so tired of being second-class citizens that we're willing to work our fingers to the bone to make this work."
Lindy entwined her fingers. "I know what you mean. Sally and I feel the
same way."
"We discussed the project for hours." She waggled her eyebrows. "And went through several bottles of Ricardo's wine collection while we did."
Lindy grinned.
"I'm afraid my sweet Ricardo will be annoyed when he finds out."
"Finds out what?"
"That we drank three of his most prized wines, Chateau La something or
other, Petrus Pamer…I forget and Dom ro…row your boat." She licked her lips and pretended to rub her belly. "And let me tell you, they were yummy. Ricardo has good taste."
Lindy laughed. "I know, he married you."
Kelly hitched her chin. "Thank you. The problem is he was saving those
wines for a grand celebration." She giggled and raised an eyebrow. "I ask you, what could be grander than the birth of a new women's movement?"
"Good point. Sounds like Sally and I missed a good time."
"You did, and I for one, got a little tipsy, so about eleven o'clock, I brewed a pot of coffee, because I didn't want anyone to have trouble driving home."
"No, we surely wouldn't want an accident or any breathalyzer tests."
Kelly laughed. "No, we sure wouldn't. It would make our fledgling
organization look very bad. Nonetheless, we had a very productive meeting. We
came up with a plethora of ideas, most of which you and Sally are probably
already implementing, but I'm here, anyway, to tell you about our suggestions
and concerns. Would you like to hear them?"
"Of course. This is a joint effort for women, by women."
Kelly uncrossed her legs and straightened up. "I knew you'd say that. You
know what I like?"
"What?"
"That everyone is so nice, Sally and you included. I'm sure you know many
times when you get a group of women together some can act…well, catty."
Lindy sighed. "Yes, it's too bad, but I'm afraid you're right."
"But these women are all out for the common good. For once, I'm going
enjoy working with everyone."
Lindy leaned forward and rested her elbows on her desk. "I'm glad you like
them. Sally picked you all out and she has good judgment. That's one of the
things that make her a good politician. Now, I believe you had some suggestions
and concerns."
A slight blush flowed across Kelly's mildly freckled skin. "I'm sorry. I get carried away sometimes when I'm enthused." She opened her purse and pulled
out her daily planner. "Like I said, you may already be doing these things." Kelly held up her right hand, forefinger extended. "For starters, we pulled up the group's website. We liked it, but instead of the main colors being red, white and blue, we think they should be pink, white and sky blue."
Lindy laughed. "We wouldn't want the site to be confused with a maternity
ward."
Kelly arched her eyebrows, but smirked. "Agreed. We could accent the site
with red white and blue ribbons."
"All right, it wouldn't be that hard to change. I'll see what Sally thinks."
"Good. Now, do you have a good graphic artist?"
"No, do you know one?"
"Is there a skyscraper in New York?"
Lindy laughed. "I guess you know an artist."
"I know a couple. One is Carla's daughter. She's good and for now, she's
free." Lindy nodded. "Free is good, she's hired. What else?"
"I'm not taking too much of your time, am I?"
"I have things to do, but what could be more important than the project?"
Kelly smiled. "I agree. Now, as the party grows into the millions we are
going to need lots of employees and volunteers—hundreds, maybe thousands.
For the time being, we can take care of our womanpower needs locally."
Lindy laughed, but held up her hand. "Hold on. We hope to appeal to
common sense men, too."
"You're right. Peoplepower. The point I was trying to make is that if we
open an office in Roanoke, Wisconsin or Bakersfield, California or Gadsden,
Alabama, we will need to staff those offices."
"True, what's your point?"
Kelly waved her hands. "Only that we're going to need a human resources
specialist."
"Do you know someone who could to do that?"
"I know a couple of women—we do prefer women don't we?"
Lindy shrugged. "Yes, I do."
"Good. I'll set up appointments for you."
Lindy raised her index finger. "You mentioned Alabama. Will we open
offices in places where we have no chance of winning?"
Kelly pursed her lips. "If a woman wants to run for a major office there, do we have a choice?"
"I guess not, but—"
"But nothing. Democrat, Independent, Republican, it matters not, all women
are fair game for our movement. The women of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee
and other southern states are neither as extreme nor as dogmatic as the men. I'm from Alabama. I know."
"Really?" Lindy cocked her head. "I thought there was a faint accent in your voice, but decided it was my imagination."
Kelly frowned. "Hmm, I thought I lost my accent when I attended a
northeastern university. Apparently not."
"Oh, your accent is pretty well gone. Are you from Gadsden?"
"No, I'm from Mobile on the Gulf Coast—a pretty place, really. I left eleven years ago. In some ways I miss Mobile, yet I only go back to visit on special
occasions."
"Okay, I'll take your word the women of the South would be interested in
SAFE, but would they be interested in sufficient numbers to win a statewide
vote?"
"Maybe not at first, but you can't have a national movement if you write off a segment of the country."
"Good point."
"Don't forget we're not dealing from politics as much as we're dealing in fair treatment for women. Things are better than they were a hundred years ago
when they threw women in jail for demonstrating for the right to vote, but there are people—mostly men—that seem to want to revisit the 1920's. Men think they
can still push us around, but the majority of women are never going there again.
And with SAFE's help, men will start to treat the fair sex as they should, fairly."
"That's a nice slogan—treat the fair sex fairly. Would you mind if Sally used that during her campaign?"
"It's not mine. Carla said it, but I'm sure—" Kelly's greenish-blue eyes widened. "Sally's running?"
Lindy smiled wide. "Yep, I convinced her yesterday."
"For Senate?"
She nodded.
"How exciting. We have our first candidate." Kelly bounced up and down in her seat. "I'd say that calls for a drink."
"It does, but I have to drive to a luncheon and meeting clear across town
pretty soon."
"When will that be over? We could go have a drink then."
"Not for a while. I'll tell you what. If you have the time, I'll meet you for a cocktail and dinner at Gianni's at five o'clock—my treat."
"Let me buy, Lindy. I have plenty of money."
"No way, you just got us off and running with your $100,000 donation. I'm