[Author’s note: I’m resharing this post a year later on the eve of the 2nd Women’s March. This year, I’ll attend in Nevada due to my current locale. Think about how we blew their minds last year. But it’s still time to resist and persist! Best wishes for safety and solidarity to my fellow Marchers, tomorrow and every day we stand up for ourselves and for each other.]
I’m excited and proud to be Marching on Denver this weekend as part of a national movement called the Women’s March on Washington. This is for solidarity and for women’s rights. The last I heard, there will be marches in 60 nations and all seven continents!
When thinking of why it’s important to me to participate in this peaceful demonstration, I realized that a lot of the reasons why I want to march are the same reasons why it’s so important to travel.
1) To Expand My Worldview
The world is much larger and more diverse than what I see of it on a daily basis. Travel is a very hands-on way to be introduced to or reminded of its wide variety of landscapes and opinions. But even if you do not have the time or money to travel, you can explore different opinions and places through reading, watching or listening to real news.
Learning why other people are attending the Women’s March has expanded my world view. For example, some are marching to stand out not just for gender equality recognition but also for racial equality, disabled populations, LGBT community, for their mothers and for their children, for affordable healthcare, for the environment, and more. Likewise, learning and trying to understand why people voted or did not has also expanded my worldview.
2) To Participate in History Rather than Being Doomed By It
Traveling has taught me more about history than any class ever has. Not that I didn’t have great textbooks and teachers, but walking European streets took WWII from being a faraway awful thing that happened to strangers and turned it into something I experienced too. These physical tank tracks from a German tank in a Warsaw church wall left more of an emotional impression than I ever could have known in a high school or college class.
It really hasn’t been very long since a xenophobic megalomaniac took over a continent…
3) To Experience Local Customs
Women before us have marched for the right to vote. They have marched for safer working conditions and fairer wages. They have ensured that we can carry passports, let alone use them, let alone stay unmarried! (A 2015 World Bank study found that 32 countries require a husband’s permission to get a passport.) I’m going to wear pants to the March! Did you know that women weren’t allowed to wear pants on the U.S. Senate floor until 1993? That is not a typo. But if I wanted to wear a burqa to the beach, I can do that too.
I’ve traveled to places – or avoided traveling to places – where this behavior would not be tolerated. I’m always respectful of local customs. Exercising our First Amendment Rights is about as local of a custom as a U.S. American can have. Therefore, I will march in trousers and a #pussyhat.
4) To Be a Voice for Those Who Cannot Speak
Since I don’t yet have children, I have some freedom in my schedule and budget that many parents simply do not have. I hope that sharing my journeys helps those who cannot currently travel find some inspiration and excitement about this beautiful planet.
I’m marching because I care about this beautiful world and its environment. Koala bears and babies and bays can’t speak for themselves, but I can. I care about the planet, and I care that our leaders are educated in ways we can protect it.
5) To Actively Resist and Not Passively Rest
I’ll never forget the boyfriend who told me what a waste of time it was to travel. He followed that up with, “There must be something wrong with you to want to leave all the time.” What he failed to see was how much I love coming home! But I’m not going to sit around on the couch all day watching baseball like he did. Needless to say, that relationship didn’t last much longer.
Similarly, I’ll never forget that the man now in presidential office once said, “Grab ‘em by the pussy.” Today, we officially begin a new relationship that will last four years. It doesn’t feel like coming home. It feels more like watching a 1960’s sci-fi dystopia unfold, now that a man who’s admitted to and been a proponent of sexual assault is taking office.
Certain men and certain attitudes simply must be resisted. Silence is the voice of complicity. I’m marching because women’s rights are human rights, but I’m specifically marching for sexual assault survivors.
I urge you to revel in your passport and all the freedom it holds, even if you let it expire or still haven’t even applied for it. At least you have the liberty to do so. We travel because we must, or else we will rust. We march because we can and we must continue to move forward. Please join me tomorrow in Denver or any of the 616 Sister Marches including a Virtual March for the Disabled. Whatever your reason, for whomever you voted, this March means the world to women.
Your voice matters!