A Nation That Came Together… ish
I was at the ever-hyped march on the Supreme Court last May in Washington D.C. I was lucky enough to be taking a political science class the preceding semester called “Power And Politics” and about ten of us students ranging from Freshmen to Juniors were taken for a two week immersive trip to Washington D.C. to meet with lawmakers, policy writers, lobbyists, and anyone else you could think of to talk about what it’s really like to live and work in that environment. We even met with a recent alumni from our own university who worked security for the Supreme Court and he, as much as he could, told us about how the then recent overturn of Roe v. Wade had affected his job. Almost exactly in the middle of the trip was the march, and everyone wanted to be ther. Our professor encouraged us to go for the experience since we had the day off from meetings, so we braved an unfamiliar metro system and found the crowd near the Washington Monument.
Underwhelming doesn’t begin to explain how some of us, especially the women of the group, felt about that day. I’ve personally been to several women’s marches since high school and in the past two years I’ve been to multiple pro-choice marches, and the energy at all of those had almost brought me to tears with how supportive and uplifting women were together even in their anger and grief. This march was designed to be antagonistic, I watched marchers steal things from counter-protesters and run and record and mock them, I watched marchers try to push their personal niche agendas on the larger crowds, and the speakers on the stage before the actual march failed to inspire the group. At a time where shared outrage could and should have been our power, it became what made us crumble.
I mostly stuck with a group of three students that day consisting of myself, a female freshman, and a male student who was on exchange with us from England for the semester. I valued being around him and hearing his opinion especially that day as he claimed to be extremely politically active back home, and he also felt what I can only describe as “off vibes” from the crowd and march that day when comparing it to his other experiences with marches and protests.
Movements are effective when we, the cogs in this machine, feel supported and uplifted by the leaders of it. Language centered on “we can do” instead of “hate what they did” is a better call to action. Treating a protest like a concert or purely a photo op will take away credibility. Actions matter, words need to accentuate those and not replace them.
