by Madeleine KandoI marched with 150 thousand others yesterday, joining the Women’s March in Boston. Why did I sacrifice my precious Saturday to stand in an over-packed subway car to take me to the heart of Boston to join an ocean of women and men wearing pink pussy hats, brandishing signs of every imaginable shape and size with slogans ranging from ‘Dicktator’ or ‘Keep your tiny hands off my equal pay’, to ‘the pussy strikes back’?
I did this because I am angry, frustrated, disappointed, but mostly because I believe that doing nothing is not an option. By marching I showed the world, you, myself, that the time has come to say ‘this has gone too far’. It felt better than standing in my kitchen, listening to the news while cooking dinner and feeling helpless, hopeless and powerless.
I marched because marching binds people together without using words. When 150 thousand pairs of feet do the talking, people listen. I marched because it gave me strength, even if it was just for one afternoon and if there is anything that can be called ‘action at a distance’, yesterday’s 600 marches throughout the entire world deserve that description.
I marched against discrimination, bigotry, racism and to keep women's reproductive rights. I marched for a better, more just world. I could say that I marched because I believe that the world would be a better place if women were in charge. I know that sounds sexist. So be it.
But I do believe it is our turn. Why not give us a chance, or at least an equal opportunity? We have qualities that a government that is supposed to take care of its citizens is losing rapidly, feelings of compassion and a willingness to cooperate and LISTEN! I marched for all these reasons and more.
But mostly I marched because I could. leave comment here
8 comments:
Madeleine, you ask "why not give us a chance"? Most of the women speakers I heard Saturday sounded whining and/or hysterical. Most men are not going to vote for whining and/or hysterical.
To anon. Your opinion of women being whiny or hysterical could be perceived as affected and passionate in the same way men's level-headedness could be called indifferent and uncaring or just stiflingly oppressed by percieved gender roles.
Good for you Madeleine,
Some of us feel the need to get off of our asses and do something and it's easy for those who sit on their asses and do bugger all, but whine. However, it has been my experience that it is difficult to keep the momentum up. The passage of time wears us down and we must go on about our lives; otherwise adapt to the unthinkable, a psycho/sociopath. I think it did work during the Vietnam War, but it took the nightly news showing the casualties in color and the slaughter at Kent State, etc. to awaken the public. My wife and I marching, my resigning my Naval Commission,I suspect had little effect on anyone but ourselves. We felt that we did something. Good work, Madeleleine.
And lets see if you get hysterical when a bunch of women decide what happens with your reproductive organs...
Anonymous is evidence of why men need to drop dead once and for all. Whining and hysterical? GTFO...men are literally the worst. SMH.
Toni, I'm not worried, I'm amused.
Thank you for your courage!
Me, too!
Power to the people, all the people!
Bruce
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