So, the first anniversary of the inauguration of #45 #notmypresident is coming up and I’m seeing calls for a redux of the 2017 post-inauguration Women’s March. I was there, in Seattle – with 150,000 others. It was an amazing thing, in Seattle and around the world. It was the largest global protest in history as well as the largest protest march ever in Seattle and many other American cities. Women were galvanized by the Access Hollywood tape to declare, among other things, that Trump was not fit to be president and that he clearly did not represent them. Obviously, there were many other issues brought out by his campaign promises that were of concern: refugees and immigration, the environment, reproductive rights, etc. But it was the women, and their outrage against this man’s constant demeaning of women throughout the campaign and throughout his life, that sparked that first march. It was the women who stood up and said, “This is wrong and we will not stand for it. You cannot continue to treat us this way. We are listening and we are watching!”
But for what is being dubbed as Women’s March 2.0, I can’t
figure out what the real message is. It
seems to me that a planned and promoted march/rally ought to have a clear goal
– to rally the masses to inspire them to work on some specific thing, to communicate
some specific demand(s) to the leaders, or both. There are certainly many issues we could
rally around, but this being the anniversary of the inauguration, it seems most
fitting that we should keep the heat on Trump and his Republican cronies. But “Unity, Equity, and Justice”? That’s awfully vague. Here’s what the Seattle march Facebook page
says, “To engage and empower all people
to support women's rights, racial equity, human rights, civil rights,
disability rights, LGBTQIA rights, workers’ rights, immigrant rights,
reproductive rights, Indigenous people's rights and social and environmental
justice.” Um, okay, I’m all for
that. But that’s not a statement that moves
people. And there’s no clear action
behind it – nothing about what we’re
going to do and nothing about what
we expect from government or corporate leaders. And I don’t know if this is an issue across
the country, but in Spokane the organizers are struggling because, as
one organizer put it, “as an
all-inclusive non-partisan non-profit, the Women's March was focused on
educating people about legislation on issues like equity and human rights. It
wasn't meant to be a political group singling out people or organizations.” I don’t know where that ever came from but
the first march, last year, was definitely meant to be political. And here’s a statement from the Women’s
March Alliance FAQ page about why we march: “Remind the existing government body that they report to the people and
the people expect their civil liberties to be upheld.”
Really??? Remind them? WTF!?!!
We have a man in the White House who has admitted to sexually assaulting
women and backed a candidate who has been accused of sexually assaulting
children; who has equated racist right-wing extremists and Nazis with those who
oppose them; whose businesses directly benefit financially from his role as
president; who believes that climate change is a hoax; who has made totally
unfounded claims of voter fraud; who has no foreign policy except to fling
tweets full of insults, threats, and bravado at leaders of other countries; who
has appointed agency heads who want to dismantle the very agencies they are
supposed to lead; who has appointed an attorney general who has taken
regressive positions on civil rights, the death penalty, drug enforcement laws,
and many other issues in our justice system; who continues to vilify Muslims
and Latinos; who is suspected of colluding with Russia against his political
opponent; who acts as commander-in-chief by tweeting that transgender
individuals can no longer serve in the military – without consulting with
military leaders; and whose fitness for the office is finally being questioned
by mental health professionals.
Based on all of that, we ought to be taking that outrage
from last year and demanding that our congressional representatives call him
out on every one of those things, begin investigations into every accusation of
sexual assault, investigate his ties with the neo-Nazi alt-right, denounce all
of his ridiculous tweets, and take away that big button of his. This man is not only unfit to run this country;
he is dangerous to our national security, our environment, and our health. We should be demanding nothing less than
impeachment.
Women should be feeling even more outraged and motivated to
make these demands in the wake of the recent #MeToo movement that is shining a
bright light on the persistence of the patriarchy. It’s not just about harassment in the
workplace. It is about men not taking
women seriously, about men objectifying and sexualizing women. It is about a deeply held belief that men
have a right to women’s bodies and that women should be nice, sweet, quiet and
do what they are told. And are they
really saying we
can’t attach our signs to wooden sticks?
Give me a f'ing break! A
bunch of red neck white guys staged an armed protest and occupation of a
federally owned facility with very few consequences!
But, like Elizabeth Warren, we should persist. We are far beyond “reminding”… It is time to
demand. And while our protests should be
non-violent, they should certainly be loud enough to be heard in Washington, in
state capitals all over the country, on Wall Street, and in Hollywood. At this point, I don’t even know if I’m going
to the rally/march. I don’t know that I want
to waste my time on something so pitifully inadequate. Last year’s march was exciting, awe
inspiring, and motivating. With the way
things are looking this year, I expect the results of the Women’s March of 2018
to be disappointing at best.
But, if I go, I’m carrying my sign on a stick!!
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