A week ago, I attended the Women’s March in Washington D.C., and I’m here to talk about the good and bad aspects of the march, while also talking about our possible first step in the right direction after one of the biggest marches in America.
The Good
It was cold outside underneath a sunless sky, but it was nothing a coat couldn’t fix. The weather was not as bad as I thought it would be. Going up the escalator to the open environment of pink hats and white posters was a refreshing feeling. I had never been to Washington, D.C., and it was beautiful. The buildings were so regal that I couldn’t tell which one was a government building and which one was a Corner Bakery. There was an element of whimsy with the sky barely blue and the posters flapping in the wind. From every road I looked down, there were people coming around every corner. It was less of what one would think of as a march– all going in one direction chanting the same thing. Masses of people coming and going in all directions shouted things from “Black Lives Matter” to “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” Personally, going there felt warm. Every single person there may not have been on the same page, but we were all within the same chapter.
The Bad
There was always something looming over me before and during the march. After the protest had taken place, it was as if I had finally decided to open the door to the issues of the march that I didn’t want to think about beforehand. On the drive back to Georgia, I saw a photo of a poster from one of the marches around the world: “So I’ll see you nice white ladies at the next Black Lives Matter march, right?” Reality had set in right then and there, because I suddenly found myself feeling an immense amount of loneliness. As people from various backgrounds came together to fight back together, it was a beautiful experience. However, now that we are having time to sit back and think, I wonder where all of these people were last year for the Dakota Pipeline, or the year before when police brutality was served up on multiple new stations, or the year before that when Flint, Michigan first began to not have clean water. I felt alone in the idea that we can only show up in such a big way when something affects the majority.
The Future
When it comes to your mind and your feet, I have two ideas for you. Going forward, I urge you to think about this, if a big issue doesn’t affect you personally, it still matters. If you want to get your feet moving in a forward-thinking direction, write a letter to your representatives telling them what is important to you and that you need them to care about it also.
Overall, the one thing that the Women’s March allowed me to do was think. I thought about the power of the people, and I also thought about the flaws of this power. Now, all I can do is look forward.