Today, women rose up

The march seen around the world

Two young protestors on the train home from the Women’s March in Philadelphia. January 21, 2017

Yesterday, an undeserving man was sworn into the most respected and most powerful office in the world.

That’s why today was the first day of a resistance. It makes sense that the resistance rose up from women.

Women’s March in Philadelphia, January 21, 2017. Photo courtesy of Spencer Lewis.

We are resisting because this undeserving man won while simultaneously denigrating women and insulting his opponent who happened to be a woman.

We are resisting the patriarchy, its population finally so bloated with male privilege and hubris it can no longer lift its boot high enough to crush our throats.

We are raging against the votes that went to a man who admits to using his position of power to molest and humiliate women who have no power, because he wanted to. We are raging because this undeserving man used his power to embarrass a disabled person, in front of cameras and millions of people. We are raging because these things alone were not enough to make the country discard him like rancid meat.

Enough.

Women’s March in Philadelphia, January 21, 2017.

We are saying, with loud and calm dignity, that no administration can press unwanted laws against our bodies without a fight so great it will flood the streets of American cities with pink fluorescent fury and won’t relent until we are heard.

Now is the time to discard that carefulness that too closely resembles a lack of conviction.

The above quote is from Now Is The Time To Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The New Yorker. (Please read it.)

Women’s March in Philadelphia, January 21, 2017. Photo courtesy of Spencer Lewis.

I marched. I was in Philadelphia.

It was powerful to see. I saw women who were 80, 90 years old. I saw babies not more than three months old with proud mamas and papas. I saw many, many men.

Every face was filled with joy and hope. Every person was welcoming and enthusiastic. Men. Women. Children.

This march was all about civility. What the world wants is equality and civility. How could this country of such diverse and exquisite resources elect a person so far from what we are?

Today’s marches were about something much larger than the election. They were about our futures. Your future too.

Rise up.