This past weekend, on Saturday January 21, I joined with about the sixty thousand women, children, and men in Atlanta who marched from the Center for Civil and Human Rights to Liberty Plaza, across from the Georgia State Capital.
I was there not because I think Trump is an illegitimate president (though there is enough evidence to support the claim). I was there because I believe that women, the LGBT+ community, racial minorites, and other underrepresented people deserve equal representation and consideration. Their voices deserve to be heard, their concerns are valid and they shouldn't have to stand alone fighting to be heard.
The problems we face are not simply the policies of old white men (though they are usually the ones in power), but the larger threat that is conservatism and religious zealotry. Conservatism seeks to hold us back to bygone eras which are only glamorous in the memories and the entertainment media. Times when children always behaved their parents, parents slept in separate beds, and quiet towns like Mayberry were the norm. Times when manufacturing plants killed and dismembered the workers (adult and child alike), mining accidents were shrugged off, and the miners which survived did so with respiratory problems. Times when a man could be a man, and treat his woman (whose place was in the home, or to be seen and not heard) just like any other piece of property he owned - justifiably because the family Bible told him it was just. Is this what the target is? Is this when America was great before?
Perhaps I'm being a bit hyperbolic. But think about what the "good old days" refer to. When was it, what happened, what did it look like (in actuality and in the media (news vs. entertainment))? Is that what we want or do we want to make progress as a society?
I vote for progress, I vote for equality for all. Sure there were issues with both candidates, but only one showed the promise of progress. So, I march to ensure that my voice, our voices, can be heard. I march in support of the rights of the disenfranchised, the dismissed, and the oppressed. I march against racism, sexism, and xenophobia. I march against legislated morality. I march for logic and reason as the basis of policy. I march for truth, justice, and the American way for all of its citizens.
Be excellent to each other.
