President’s Column January 2026

I was a product of the times I grew up in, the 60s and the 70s, where women’s rights and civil rights were ascending. Girls were told we could be anything and do anything that the opposite sex could do. Girls could take “shop”, become doctors or veterinarians. With the advent of reliable, easy birth control and women’s reproductive health freedoms, we were as free as any of our male counterparts. The Vietnam War and massive student protest movements ushered in a new enlightened age of social justice and equality, as diverse groups forged a coalition in response to the horrors of an unjustified war.

 We women took progress as a given, our birthright. I personally took full advantage, leaving my early career in women-dominated nursing to explore new available options and became fully-engaged in what had been a male-dominated field in the corporate world. I never thought twice about it or ever thought it was anything but normal in our new age of enlightenment. And now, we are left in the rubble, wondering what happened and can we ever find our way back?

A couple of weeks ago, I read a quote that sounded nonsensical, but when I pondered the words, I was horrified because more and more news comes out that makes you realize that there is A Truth to it. The quote came from a book by Margaret Atwood (1982), Second Words, in an essay entitled “Writing the Male Character”. The quote is as follows: “ Why do men feel threatened by women? I asked a male friend of mine...’They’re afraid women will laugh at them…’ Then I asked women students, ‘Why do women feel threatened by men? ‘They’re afraid of being killed,’ they said.” To me, this is profound.

In our current times, in just a short couple of years, all the big wins for women, in fact, all minority populations, have evaporated. Mostly, these changes won’t affect me, a retired white woman, but it seems possible that following generations won’t have nearly the opportunities that I have had.

Worse is that safety and predictability, as we knew it, is totally gone. Civility is hardly a word in our vocabulary any longer. With the loss of civility and increased calls for violence from the current regime -- we have seen violence at all levels but predominantly impacting vulnerable populations. Women, LGBTQ+, people of color, indigenous people, and immigrants of all nationalities. Far-right extremist groups, which would have been considered fringe groups in the past, are behind the majority of the violence. According to Reuters, in a Special report (2023), outbursts by extremist groups are the worst they’ve been since the 1970s.

We need to choose optimism that we will find our path forward once again. Dr. Martin Luther King outlined hope in terms of tailwinds and headwinds in his 1959 sermon, entitled “Shattered Dreams. “In this sermon, he used tailwinds as a symbol of hope. “At times in our lives, the tailwinds of joy, triumph, and fulfillment favor us, and at times the headwinds of disappointment, sorrow, and tragedy beat unrelentingly against us. Shall we permit adverse winds to overwhelm us as we journey across life’s mighty Atlantic, or will our inner spiritual engines sustain us in spite of the [head] winds? “ It is my hope that our resilience and strength can help us weather the storm and that in 2026 the tailwinds will finally return.

Patricia Lisle, UUSE President

#JanuaryNewsletter