I didn't march today. I would have loved to, but I feared it would be unwise to test my physicality in such a way. I've attended a few rallies in my day, like the one for Bernie Sanders in Boulder a year and a half ago (when I thought the sun was trying to kill me, and it turned out it was), or the one five years ago watching Stephen Colbert at the College of Charleston (when the weather was perfect but the walking and standing was a lot for me). I ought to have tried to join my 100,000-150,000 sisters who marched in Denver. Or met up with my actual relatives who marched with 130,000 women in Seattle, 500,000 women in Washington DC, or 750,000 in Los Angeles. As a protest, as a worldwide movement, this one has teeth. And I am pleased.
I'm proud of my cousins, daughters, aunties, friends, and spiritual sisters around the world for standing together in this moment. I've loved seeing their photographs, hearing their stories, and in the case of my daughter, watching her interview by The Young Turks at a protest yesterday. (I'll share the link on the Scenes From Smith Park Facebook page.) The millions of women who rose up around the world have only just begun. There is a lot of work yet to be done.
I've seen a lot of women who don't understand what the protest was about. They think it was just about abortion or racism or just to be poor sports about the election. It was all about so much more than that. The way I see it, it was a not-so-subtle reminder that women are strong, smart, vocal, and powerful. The last year, including the election cycle and all that went with it, felt like there was a concerted effort to downplay the strength of women, to roll backwards the advancements of the last century, to revive misogynistic policies, and to normalize sexual assault and oppression. This cannot be borne. Women marched to amplify their voices, and to provide evidence to each other that we are there to provide support to our sisters everywhere. The men who marched with them lent their support as allies and as friendly voters and activists.
It wasn't just about women's issues. It was about science, the environment, the justice system, freedom of speech, freedom of and from religion, and so many issues that Americans and people around the world feel are threatened by the sudden dark turn of the global political climate. I read an essay this morning that cheered me, though. It posited that this is not necessarily the start of something oppressive, but rather the end. It's the last gasp of the policies of the past, of division and antagonism. These things can't die quietly with a whimper. For them to go, they have to explode in a disaster of their own making. It isn't going to be fun living through this final convulsion, but when we are on the other side of it, with the next generation thinking running the show, it will be worth the effort.
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