Planned Parenthood Federation of America - Make trouble: standing up, speaking out, and finding the courage to lead

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Copyright 2018 by Cecile Richards

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First Touchstone hardcover edition April 2018

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Jacket design by Catherine Casalino and Cherlynne Li

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The low road from THE HUNGER MOON: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, 19802010 by Marge Piercy, copyright 2011 by Middlemarsh, Inc. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Richards, Cecile, author. | Peterson, Lauren, author. Title: Make trouble : standing up, speaking out, and finding the courage to leadmy life story / Cecile Richards with Lauren Peterson. Description: New York, NY : Touchstone, 2018. Identifiers: LCCN 2017061243| ISBN 9781501187599 (hardback) | ISBN 9781501187605 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781508250784 (audio cd) | ISBN 9781501187612 (ebook) | ISBN 9781508250791 (eaudio) Subjects: LCSH: Richards, Cecile. | Women political activistsBiography. | Leadership in womenUnited StatesHistory. | Womens rights United StatesHistory. | Social justiceUnited StatesHistory. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women. Classification: LCC HQ1236.5.U6 R53 2018 | DDC 305.420973 [B] dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017061243

ISBN 978-1-5011-8759-9

ISBN 978-1-5011-8761-2 (ebook)

To Kirk, Hannah, Daniel, and Lily. And to Mom and Dad for getting this whole party started.

Little lady, you are just trying to make trouble.

That was my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Powers, at University Park Elementary School in Dallas. She had spent the past fifteen minutes conducting an interrogation: Why was I refusing to recite the Lords Prayer with the rest of the class?

Mrs. Powers was a lifer at UPS, with permed helmet hair that was the fashion back then. She was a good old gal who probably smoked with the other teachers in the teachers lounge. Looking back, Im not even sure I knew that it was unconstitutional to have us start each day with the Lords Prayerbut by God, we did, right after the Pledge of Allegiance. That morning, though, I just wasnt having it. When Mrs. Powers asked me why I wasnt participating, I said calmly, We dont read the Bible in my house. Mrs. Powerss eyes flew open. I could see from her stricken look that she had taken my candor for cheekiness. I suppose in a way it was.

We werent a religious family, not in a traditional sense, but we did go to the Unitarian church, which was sort of a home away from home for progressive families like ours in Dallasour own little bunker in the middle of the crazy culture war of the 60s, and the heart of the local antiVietnam War movement. Folks in our congregation were involved in everything from the United Farmworkers organizing to Notes from the Underground , Dallass radical newspaper, which my dad happened to be defending in court. Religion was cool with me; it just didnt include the Lords Prayer. It was pretty obvious from Mrs. Powerss reaction what she thought about that. There was no hope for me; clearly, I was headed for a life of crime.

Up until then I was the classic all-As first child. I lived to make my parents proud of me, which, given their relative youth and inexperience in child-rearing, meant adhering to certain rules. I was the kid who never got in troublea trait that annoyed my younger brother, Dan, to no end. I never forgot the shame and humiliation of being called out in front of my class at age eleven. But in that moment I realized something about myself: my parents werent the only ones who didnt fit into the right-wing Dallas establishment. I too was an outlier.

It was the first time I remember having to decide: Do I accept things the way they are, or question authority? I chose the latter, and from that point forward I was branded a troublemaker. Once the initial shock wore off, it became a badge of honor. Ive been making trouble ever sincewhich, to me, means taking on the powers that be, being a thorn in someones side, standing up to injustice, or just plain raising hell.

Sometimes being a troublemaker can be pretty damn awesome. After all, it was one of the great troublemakers of all time, Emma Goldman, who said, If I cant dance, I dont want to be part of your revolution. Other times, its scary and carries big risksthe risk of losing your job, your friends, your reputation, or all of the above. Over the years Ive had the good fortune to meet troublemakers from all walks of life: nursing home workers in East Texas, janitors in Los Angeles, members of Congress, organizers and activists of every age on the front lines of the struggle for justice. Ive watched in awe as my mother, Ann Richards, went from frustrated housewife to governor of Texas, defying convention and the political establishment. That was one of the things that drew me to Planned Parenthood: its history is the history of brave, troublemaking women (and a few good men) who risked their reputations and even their lives to change things. We fellow travelers have a way of finding each other, whether we set out to or not.

This book is the story of the people who have taught me about courage and defiance and making change. Its also my story, which has been somewhat daunting to write. Like a lot of rabble-rousers (particularly rabble-rousing women), Im a lot more comfortable talking about my work than myself. But now almost every day people come up to me, usually with a look of distress, to ask, How are you doing? They seem to think working for progressive causes is unpleasant or burdensome. The truth is, anything worth doing has its challenges. And, yes, fighting for what you believe in can be discouraging, defeating, and sometimes downright depressing. But it can also be powerful, inspiring, fun, and funnyand it can introduce you to people who will change your life. Thats the message I want to spread far and wide. Thats why I wrote this book.