On the Passing of Great Women

I came across this post by Oriana Fallaci, who died yesterday. It is from the 7/18/05 issue of Corriere Della Sera, translated by dennisw.

Now, I ask myself: "What do you say, what do you have to say, about what happened in London?" They ask me face-to-face, via fax and email; often scolding me because up until now I have remained silent. Almost as if my silence were a betrayal. And each time I shake my head and murmur to myself: what else should I say?!? I've been saying it for four years--that I fight against the Monster that has decided to eliminate us physically and, along with our bodies, to destroy our principles and values. Our civilization. For four years I've been talking about Islamic Nazism; about the war against the West; about the death cult; about European suicide. About a Europe that is no longer Europe, but Eurabia, and that with its feebleness, its inertia, its blindness, its servitude to the enemy is digging its own grave. For four years, like another Cassandra, I've been shouting until I'm hoarse "Troy is burning! Troy is burning!" and I despair of the Danaids for whom, like Virgil in the Aeneid I weep for a city entombed in its torpor. [A city] that, through its wide-open doors receives fresh troops and joins complicit parties [inside]. For four years I've been repeating to the wind the truth about the Monster and its accomplices; that is, the accomplices of the Monster who, in good or bad faith, open wide the doors--who, like [those] in the Apocalypse of John the Evangelist, throw themselves at his feet and allow themselves to be stamped with the mark of shame.

I am feeling like all the strong women, my iconic feminists, are leaving. They were uncompromising, passionate, smart women. Even when I don't agree with them, I admire they way they make me think. Like Anne Richards, who passed away on September 13.

In a voice that rang with the sounds of Waco, her hometown, she ribbed the incumbent vice president, George H. W. Bush. "Poor George," she drawled. "He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

These recent deaths cause me to think back on the others who have gone. Some recently, like Susan Sontag and Betty Friedan. Some, not so recently, like Bella Abzug. I even find myself remembering the death of Audre Lorde...