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On Inauguration Day, my heart broke. And like so many millions of Americans, today I have a great deal of fear. The last time I felt fear like this was September 11, 2001. After 9/11 my faith in humanity and in being safe was shaken. Today is not unlike 9/11, except on that day, we as a nation were being attacked from the outside and today, we are being attacked from the inside, which is scarier if you ask me. But today I know that my focus can’t be on my fear. It has to be on action. I have to spend the next many years actively being involved. I have to fight for myself and all the other marginalized people who now need fighting for. And there are many. So I marched in the Los Angeles Women’s March. I marched with 750,000 other people who know that America and what it stands for is not being represented by this new administration. This administration is representative of all the worst qualities in men…men as bullies, men as misogynists, men as xenophobes…but America is representative of all the best qualities in men, and I know this because I saw the proof of it when I marched.
Yes, it was the Women’s March, but marching alongside smart, brave, tireless women, were the fathers, brothers, boyfriends, male spouses, male siblings and male friends of these women. On a personal level, understanding that these men are the true representation of America is critical. I am a survivor of sexual assault, so having a president who believes men have a right to grab women as if they were possessions…to “grab them by the pussy”… is abhorrent. Today at the march, I listened to a father explain to his son that women were the backbone of our society, that every life grows and develops within a woman, and that his job as a young man was to respect women and treat them well. I listened to this and my heart was a little less broken, because I know that this man and the message he shared with his son is what is actually representative of America. Marching that day was about love, respect, peace, hope, community and solidarity and in that moment, that stranger and his son healed something in me just a little bit.
I marched with an African American woman who marched in Selma. I apologized to her because here we were, marching for equality for people of color still, 51 years, and as a white woman, I know that I will never really understand her struggles as a black woman. She was so positive, though, and that was inspiring. She said that there will always be people who think power comes from pushing others down, from dehumanizing them, but that she has always chosen to focus on the good, and that she was marching yet again because she hadn’t lost faith in the good. She said she hoped that the march was just a beginning, and that our voices would grow louder with every day that Trump was president. I want that too and I believe they will. Three million more people voted against hate than voted for it, and a flawed system won’t change our desire to make sure who we are as Americans is really represented. This woman linked her arm with mine as we marched, and my heart was a little less broken. Hate can’t destroy hope and love if we don’t let it. I know because I marched with someone who had been leading with hope and faith for over 50 years and when we linked arms, she invited me to join her on that journey.
Even though this was the Women’s March, it was really just a march about human decency. It was millions of people from all over the world coming together to say love will win. Millions of people who believe that Emily Lazarus’ words are still what this country, what these United States, stand for…. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Maybe some Americans have lost sight of this in these modern, often tumultuous times, but the majority of us has not. And if we continue to raise our voices and protect one another in the coming years, love for all individuals, regardless of their color, their religion, their sexual orientation or their gender, that love will win.
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Photo: Getty Images
