We Need More Robin Hoods
Dear Leading Ladies,
Who doesn’t love the story of Robin Hood? How can we resist the image of a brave young man hiding out in Sherwood Forest with his merry band of outlaws as they stop the coaches on the road to Nottingham Castle to steal from the rich and give to the poor? As they make sure those in need are clothed, housed, and fed? Sure, Robin and crew were breaking the law, and it would have been nice if there were a few women in the bunch but, hey, you’d be hard put to find a more appealing hero.
The legend of this fighter for social justice emerged frequently in the 15th century with references as early as 1377. What is less known about the Robin Hood legend is that it had a brief renaissance, beyond the silver screen, in the early 1950s and McCarthy Era.
A woman named Mrs. Thomas J. White (she was never identified by her own first name), a member of the Indiana Textbook Commission, demanded that all copies of school books about or referencing Robin Hood be removed from the shelves because they promoted communism. As she explained, “[T]here is a Communist directive in education now to stress the story of Robin Hood. They want to stress it because he robbed the rich and gave it to the poor. That’s the Communist line. It’s just a smearing of law and order and anything that disrupts law and order is their meat.”
In a creative response, a few students from the University of Indiana launched the Green Feather Movement. Bernard Bray, Mary Dawson, Edwin Napier, Blas Davila, and Jeanine Carter went to a poultry farm where they purchased bags of feathers. They dyed the feathers green and on March 1, 1954, they distributed them to other like-minded students to wear in protest. It is important to remember that this took place in the relatively conservative Midwest in 1953, long before campus protests became commonplace. The movement spread to other campuses, an early testament to the power of student activism, according to the Zinn Education Project. By the way, the founding students, motivated in strong part by the discussions about social justice issues they had in their local Baptist Church, were investigated by the FBI.
Where are our Robin Hoods today? And where are our Robin Hood devotees with or without feathers but fighting Robin’s fight? Robert Reich wrote this week of the widening gap in equality in our country. He is quick to blame the Democrats for allowing it to happen, for too many of them abandoning their commitment to equal access for all to quality education, healthcare, housing, and employment in favor of their own financial gain. He said they may as well be Republicans.
He may be right, but either those Democrats change or we elect new “good Democrats” to create the world we envision.
In his next breath, Reich said he dined recently with a group of Republicans – Trump supporters – who were “lovely” people, undoubtedly good people who loved their families. Sounds a bit like Trump’s statement that there were good people on both sides at the Charlottesville protest and murder of Heather Heyer.
We are long past the days when Republicans and Democrats could be good people with different opinions about the size of our military or how to handle the national debt.
We are now at the existential crossroads of good and evil. Either we care about all the people in our country and whether they have an equal right to live with opportunity and respect, or we do not. All the rest is noise.
What can we do? Our usual mantra. Vote.
Learn more about the candidates and their commitment to equity and opportunity. We need to let our Democratic candidates know that we may withhold support if they do not demonstrate meaningful support for equality, prosperity, and fairness.
To Robin Hood and his merry band!
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
Leadingladiesvote.org
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org