http://www.suntimes.com/output/richards/cst-edt-cindy09.html
Having a conversation with Eve Ensler is a bit like watching her perform in her play, "The Vagina Monologues." She delivers a monologue, making it up as she goes and infusing it with an amazing depth of feeling. Your task is simply to try to keep up with her as she makes her way through it.
We were scheduled to chat about Ensler's latest effort, V Is For Vote. The idea is to mobilize more women to vote in 2004. The hope is to send President Bush back to Texas and usher into office a more female-friendly regime. The goal is to convince the presidential candidates to make ending violence against women a central theme of their campaigns.
A nice idea, I thought. But how is that message going to heard in a national campaign that seems to have only two issues: the war in Iraq and the economy at home?
''I think the war, the jobs and the economy are all very connected to violence against women,'' Ensler said.
''Let's begin with war. I have been outspoken about the war from the very beginning. I see not only consequences of war toward human beings, but toward women. Let's begin with rape. The rate of violence toward women escalates in war,'' said the playwright and activist who has traveled to war-torn regions in Bosnia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kosovo and the Middle East.
''War is really about taking what you want when you want it without consent. It really perpetuates a rape mentality. Take Iraq as an example. Saddam Hussein was as evil as they come. Under his regime, 1 million died, women were raped, people were tortured. That existed for 30 years and we never intervened on behalf of the people being tortured and raped. If this were a war about stopping human rights violations, that was a war that should have been called 20 years ago.''
And that was just the first three minutes of our chat. If force of personality were all it took to change national policy, it would have changed already. But it takes more -- it takes grass-roots political organization. Ensler happens to know how to do that as well.
She has used her series of monologues -- a group of women's stories that are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant and sometimes heart-wrenchingly sad -- to launch an international movement called V-Day. It uses ''The Vagina Monologues'' to raise money for local organizations that fight violence against women. In just seven years, V-Day has raised $25 million.
Ensler's new effort is aimed at harnessing the voting power of the women who participated in the 1,100 V-Day charity events this year as well as the women who benefitted from the more than $5 million raised in 2004. These women are a political powerhouse. Or could be a political powerhouse, I guess I should say. Turns out they haven't been very good about flexing their political muscles.
An organization calling itself Women's Voices. Women Vote. is launching a national get-out-the-vote campaign to reach the 22 million unmarried women who did not vote in 2000, including the 16 million unmarried women who never bothered to register.
The nonprofit organization said it polled these women and found they want a government that responds to their concerns, particularly about jobs, health care, education and abortion rights. Also, the group said, these women describe themselves as progressive and say they think the country is headed in the wrong direction.
So how do you get them to register and vote? Show them their vote can make a difference, said Page Gardner, project co-director.
''We did focus groups and said, 'There are 22 million of you who could make a difference. You could set the agenda.' It was like a light bulb went off. They got it. They got their power,'' she said.
Clearly, these are women Ensler would like to see join her at the polls on Nov. 2. The national effort to rally these women to register -- and rally all women and men who care about violence against women to vote -- began in earnest on Monday with the national launch of V Is For Vote in New York City.
The election is less than five months away.
