My Facebook this morning was flooded with pictures of women dressed in pink and messages to friends saying "be careful as you march"! All across the country, and apparently across all 7 continents (yes even Antartica) women are marching in support of women's rights, LBGTQIA rights, reproductive rights, and a host of other important issues of which this new administration is working to reverse the major steps we have taken in moving forward. In my family, I was raised to know that people are people, it does not matter what skin tone they have, what religion they practice or who they love. I pride myself on being a person who does not see a person for their differences from me, I see them for who they are because that is what is right. So I can not understand any person be it President of the United States or not who says things that spread messages of hate.
I am the descendant of Holocaust survivors, who got to this country because the government opened their borders to help get people like my grandparents out of the situation they were in. We are a country populated by immigrants and descendants of immigrants. That is what makes America the greatest country on this planet. For our president to make things like a Muslim registry part of his campaign is to spit on the incredibly hard work that activists have done before us. America has always been a country that promised "a better future" and it continues to be our job to provide that for people of the world who are in search of a better tomorrow for their families.
In the days since the election in November I have had so many thoughts on my mind. I think constantly of the struggles my grandparents went through and how hard they worked to become American citizens with a promise of providing better for their children. I think of how much love they had for all people that they came in contact with despite how cruel the world had been to them. Then I think of someone like our new President who has basically had the world handed to him on a gold platter but yet makes comments about reporters with disabilities, about wanting to build a wall to keep Mexican immigrants who want to have a better life out, about the LBGTQIA community who just two years ago were legally given the right to marry and how he may take that back. Lastly, I think about my two year old niece, the niece and nephew of my boyfriend and the two and three year olds I am lucky enough to influence on a daily basis at work. I think about how those children will grow up in a world where the first president they will remember is President Trump. I think about the messages he will send to these young influential children and I hope and pray that these children will be shown examples of peace and tolerance from other adults in their lives because no longer is the president a great example for this.
Although I did not attend any of the marches that occurred today, thanks to technology I was able to watch a lot of it online. I watched as Muslim-Americans, African Americans and women of a variety of other minority groups speak about their families struggles, about why they were walking today, for their daughters and granddaughters who are the future of this country. The messages where that of hope and not backing down. Promises of working to show the government and this presidential administration that we as women will own our bodies and our rights to make decisions about them. We heard from teachers who sent messages of pushing for better schools and a better education for the youth of America. It was quite obvious to me over the various different women who spoke that many of them could not believe they had to repeat these statements. It was almost a hundred years ago that the women's rights movement happened. Women have already marched for the sake of equality to vote, equality of pay and the ability to be in the workforce. So why then in the year 2017 when we have the ability to go to space, the ability to see people across the country and the world via webcams, we have a connection to information literally at our finger tips but people are still not sold on women getting paid equal for doing the same job as a man. We've been fighting this fight for more than a hundred years and here we are with a man in power who wants to take this country back a hundred years.
I believe the message of the March on Washington today was to call on all of us as Americans to stand up for what is right and not to sit idly by as our government makes decisions that should be left up to the individual. Miriam Ali said this morning "so many people stand up for their NBA teams, their NFL teams, they know all the rules of their sports but they don't know how local government works" Now is the time more than ever before to get involved and if you don't get involved maybe donate to a cause such as Planned Parenthood or an environmental cause. Write letters to your Senators and Representatives. Don't stay silent when you see an injustice. When I taught older children in our public schools I always taught my students that standing by and saying nothing when someone else was being bullied is just as bad as being the bully! Now more than ever we need to send the message of supporting each other. Check on your neighbor, your Jewish, Muslim, Gay or Lesbian friend to make sure that they are feeling safe and tell them that you support them and are there for them if they need anything. Spread the messages of love to those around you. Remember former-President Obama said during the campaign season "Don't boo, vote!" America voted, its our job to deal with the consequences of the election but it does not mean to be silent, it doesn't mean to accept everything President Trump says as truth, it means to question, be aware and stand up when you disagree on something. We are lucky enough to live in a country where we have the right to protest peacefully as so many men and women are doing across the country today. Don't let it stop after today, we have four more years of this administration to deal with. We are allowed to fight and disagree, it is part of what makes this country so great. Whoever you are, where ever you are, spread the message of love, peace and hope!
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