Women's March

On Friday, the USA inaugurated their 45th president into office. He is not someone I ever wanted to see in that position. He ran his campaign on a platform of division, bigotry, misogyny, bullying, and playing on the fear that so many Americans are feeling right now... Fears of people that are different from themselves, fears of losing employment, fears for the future. By stoking those fears, people were distracted from the important questions that he never answered. He never showed the integrity and compassion that are needed to lead so many people. He never shared his tax returns. He did show that he cannot handle having negative things said about himself. He showed that his compassion only extends to those who support him. He showed us that despite not liking being the butt of a joke, he has no problem with openly mocking other people. This man is not my president.

In an effort to protest his inauguration, and to show the world that we want change, women arranged marching demonstrations in the major cities and US capitol. All told, more than a million women marched in the US alone. There were demonstrations and marches in other nations as well, and their solidarity was moving. 

My sister marched in Washington, DC. My aunt marched in New York City. I had planned to march in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, my bunged up foot makes walking a serious problem for me. I was in too much pain to more than hug my couch for the day. But I was still there in spirit.

I was going to march for many reasons. I have pre-existing conditions, and with the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, I am ineligible for insurance. And I have no desire to go into bankruptcy while seeking medical care. I am bisexual. I will not tolerate having basic human rights denied to members of the LGBT community, under the guise of religious freedom or protecting children. I am a sexual assault survivor. And I don't want to go backwards in the work of protecting survivors and prosecuting the perpetrators. I am a woman. And I refuse to allow myself to be identified based on how fuckable some man finds me. I am not a number on an attractiveness scale. I am a human being. And it is unacceptable to vilify anyone based on gender, religion, sex, sexuality, language, skin color, or nation of origin. I am an American. And though this nation was founded on genocide and slavery, I will not allow us to slide back into the old patterns. That is not the atmosphere I want to live in.

I have several acquaintances who took it upon themselves to post something so tone-deaf that I am not sure I want to continue the connection. 

"I am NOT a "disgrace to women" because I DO NOT support the women's march. I do not feel I am a "second class citizen" because I am a woman. I do not feel my voice is "not heard" because I am a woman. I do not feel I am not provided opportunities in this life or in America because I am a woman. I do not feel that I "don't have control of my body or choices" because I am a woman. I do not feel like I am " not respected or undermined" because I am a woman. 

I AM a woman.
I can make my own choices.
I can speak and be heard.
I can VOTE.
I can work if I want.
I can defend myself.
I can defend my family.
There is nothing stopping me to do anything in this world but MYSELF.
I do not blame my circumstances or problems on anything other than my own choices or even that sometimes in life, we don't always get what we want. I take responsibility for myself.
I am a mother, a daughter, a wife, a sister, a friend. I am not held back in life but only by the walls I choose to not go over which is a personal choice.
Quit blaming.
Take responsibility.
If you want to speak, do so. But do not expect for me, a woman, to take you seriously wearing a pink va-jay-jay hat on your head and screaming profanities and bashing men.
If you have beliefs, and speak to me in a kind matter, I will listen. But do not expect for me to change my beliefs to suit yours. Respect goes both ways.
If you want to impress me, especially in regards to women, then speak on the real injustices and tragedies that affect women in foreign countries that do not get the opportunity or means to have their voices heard.
Saudi Arabia, women can't drive, no rights and must always be covered.
China and India, infantcide of baby girls.
Afghanistan, unequal education rights.
Democratic Republic of Congo, where rapes are brutal and women are left to die, or HIV infected and left to care for children alone.
Mali, where women can not escape the torture of genital mutilation.
Pakistan, in tribal areas where women are gang raped to pay for men's crime.
Guatemala, the impoverished female underclass of Guatemala faces domestic violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.
And that's just a few examples.
So when women get together in AMERICA and whine they don't have equal rights and march in their clean clothes, after eating a hearty breakfast, and it's like a vacation away that they have paid for to get there...
This WOMAN DOES NOT support it."

It is so tone-deaf, because it shows such an ignorance and a lack of compassion for the real problems many women are facing HERE in this country. There are women in this country that receive third-world healthcare, because that is all that is available to them... Or else that is all that they can afford. There are women in this country that are getting a substandard education, because they live in poor neighborhoods. There are women in this country that are sexually assaulted, and the first thing that the police ask them is what they were wearing. Followed closely by asking what they were drinking. There are millions of untested rape kits sitting in warehouses, or being destroyed. There was an epidemic rise in HIV cases in Indiana after Vice President Pence defunded and closed down women's health care clinics. This is AMERICA. We are supposedly meant to be setting some kind of standard for how well we take care of our people. But instead, people are distracted by political power plays and the blame game. For a First World nation, the government is failing for about half of the population. And the leaders would have us focusing on effluvia, rather than realizing that we can evoke change here ourselves.

Martin Luther King Jr Day recently passed. I have been reading his words and believing in his message. Here are a few of his words that mean much to me.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality."

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

Though it is raining, the air is clean and growth potential hangs on every breath. I think this is going to be a good day.

The Tallgurrl