Jodie Evans

issue, even for women’s organizations. They say
we’re in Afghanistan for the women. They’ve done
nothing for the women. I spoke to some of the
women in Afghanistan. They said, “We don’t need
more soldiers. We need police.”
Q: Tell me about your “Create, Not Hate” program.
Evans: We have a “Ten Years and Counting Campaign,”
and part of that is “Create, Not Hate.” What
we’re doing, with a coalition of other organizations, is
going into communities and saying, “Through your
art, your theater, your music, your cultural center,
explain what these last ten years have cost you, have
cost your community, have cost our country, have
cost the world.” What’s beautiful is the experience of
creating art together, the experience of singing
together or dancing together or creating theater
together. That’s enriching. It gives you something
juicy back. And then, out of that, who knows what
happens?
Q: What’s the state of the women’s movement
today?
Evans: I’m so excited by women right now, not
just in America but globally. Women really are
coming into their own. We’re standing on the
shoulders of forty years of hard and messy work.
But that doesn’t meant the patriarchy isn’t alive
and well. I’m the chair of the Women’s Media
Center. It was started by Gloria Steinem and Jane
Fonda and Robin Morgan to make the female half
of the population visible. About 97 percent of the
media is created by men.
Q: Maureen Dowd of The New York Times
quipped recently that Obama’s “Yes, we can!” slogan
has devolved into “Hey, we might.” You were
an early supporter of the President, and you’ve met
with him. Such people as Norman Solomon and
Cornel West are using the word “betrayal” to
describe the Obama Presidency. What happened?
Evans: I was way ahead of them. In 2007, when
Obama started to run, I wanted to support a black
man for President, I wanted to support an anti-war
activist for President. I thought it would be amazing
while we were at war with Iraq and Afghanistan to
have someone leading the country who said he was
against war.
By the general election, he had started talking
about Afghanistan as “the good war,” and I had
pulled back. As a matter of fact, when I did go to
The Progressive u 35
JOHANNA GOODMAN
“I’m so excited by
women right now, not
just in America but
globally.”