Absolutely moving!
Deeply empathetic…heartbreaking to read of one woman’s quest to change the world in her own way and conviction.
I couldn’t put the book down.
I completed reading “Take My Hand” in one sitting.
The current Roe versus Wade issue in the USA is flaming hot. It sparked outrage and debate amongst all Americans. The issue is right here in this book.
Read it.
In simple terms, Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the US Supreme Courts in 1973 that the Court will uphold the constitution and protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. Recently, there was a leaked initial draft majority opinion by the Supreme Court lawyers to overturn Roe vs Wade. That has major implications for all women across America. The rippling effects would go on to affect the LBQT community no doubt in the future. Perkins-Valdez takes us on a journey through the eyes and mind of this young 23 year old black nurse, Civil Townsend, to dive into the groundbreaking prosecution of the former US Department of Health, Education and Welfare after it failed to perform it’s duty. This important duty is to protect thousands of poor, Black and mentally challenged girls and women from surgical sterilisation without their consent. Surgical sterilisation is a medical procedure that prevents permanent reproduction. In women it is called tubal ligation and in men it is called vasectomy-these procedures require informed consent, surgery and general anaesthesia.
Perkins-Valdez explored some very deep themes and issues surrounding the Black communities in America especially in Maryland. The civil rights movement was prominent throughout the book and the role Civil Townsend played as an advocator for two young underage girls named India and Erica is to be praised. Fresh out of nursing school and wanting to change the world, Civil Townsend got her first job at being a family planning nurse at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic. Her aim was to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. But the inevitable happened and all their lives were changed forever.
I couldn’t imagine myself at the age of twenty-three giving out family planning advice to women. No way. Hell no. I wasn’t confident then. I had very little knowledge about “informed consent.” I was a young nurse with so little experience. I only found major confidence boost in my late twenties. It was when I transitioned into being an operating theatre nurse that I really understood patient’s rights and informed consent for surgery. Twenty three year old Civil Townsend took the role of being an active advocate to “doing real advocacy work” both at home and nationally through the US White House. For this, she is the real hero to saving lives. She helped moved this poor family into a new social house to improve their overall quality of life with access to basic human rights. She found schools that would accept the two girls; one of them who cannot speak and experienced aphasia-the medical term for not being able to speak or talk.
I’ve come to appreciate the importance of librarians in education. Perkins-Valdez addressed the role of education through the librarian, Miss Pope in the book . They are crucial sources of information. But she also highlighted that Miss Pope missed one important storyline. The fact that the year prior, 600 African American men in Alabama were not treated against syphilis so researchers could discover whether Black people had special resistance to the dreadful disease. I am outraged. Syphilis is a sexual transmitted bacterial infection that is spread through sexual contact. It starts as a painless sore, typically on the genitals, rectum or mouth. But overall, librarians become useful sources of evidence that could be used in legal cases through their gathering and curating information skills. The importance of having a librarian on your team is essential if you would like to change the world one day.
The turning point in this book is that India and Erica are secretly sterilised under Civil’s watch. India aged 11 years old is not even menstruating. I am outraged. Again. Perkins-Valdez touched on the Blacks community being illiterate and not being able to read. These are real issues. It needed to be addressed and highlighted. Imagine not being able to read and write and then being asked to sign a consent form for surgery for your underage children as an adult. It would be highly embarrassing. But it goes against all the rules. I am grateful that currently at University, we are taught Ethics in research and the role in plays in all human lives.
So crucial!
I’ve tried to imagine myself in Civil Townsend’s shoes. It was only in my late twenties that I was able to go on a journey of trying to change the world as an international Red Cross Nurse. The advocacy work that Civil did-I could only relate to this through my New Zealand advocacy role. For more than 6 years, I was able to welcome new immigrants and refugee families into Wellington and get them resettle into new homes-away from the wars and conflicts overseas. Part of that job involved finding houses, setting them up, sourcing and fixing furniture’s and getting children into the local schools. I was able to get close friends to help me enjoy the work over the weekends. That work continued internationally delivering medical and nursing care in my thirties-something I have come to honour and love as my service to the world.
This book is focused on women and womanhood issues. But it also touched on the support roles that Black males played in the Montgomery community. For example, the girl’s country father Mace. Tina McElroy Ansa, in the Washington Post related that “Mace is a man of colour who is uneducated and illiterate but knowledgeable, sexy, smelly, broken. I love how Perkins-Valdez brought the characters to life; you can smell the fetid air of the William’s country hovel, the scent of the girls freshly bathed and slathered with cocoa butter, and the sweat of a young lawyers dress shirt in a cool Alabama courthouse to address the difficulty of the case amongst his jittery nerves as a first time lawyer.” I have come to know and understand that America cared very little about poor Black girls and women in the 1970s.
For this, I am sad.
Heartbroken actually.
The girl who is building a museum 