Marching on...

Today I attended the 2019 Women's March in Los Angeles. It's become something of a January tradition for me. I attended the first Women's March in 2017 in Washington, D.C. because, in all honesty, I needed an outlet for all the dismay, anger and horror I felt at Donald Trump's election as President of the United States. Marching alongside nearly half a million other people who shared my outrage and sorrow was a cathartic, energizing experience. We were exercising our right to peaceful protest, reminding the newly inaugurated President that although he clearly didn't respect us or our rights, we, like Alex Forrest, would not be ignored.

In 2018, I attended the march and rally in my hometown, Philadelphia. Although we had survived a year of the Trump presidency (although it felt more like 10 years) and the world hadn't ended (yet), it felt important to me to show up again to remind the government that we were still watching, still angry, still disapproving, and still waiting for them to do better on a whole host of issues, from equal rights for individuals of all genders, races and sexual orientations and identities to climate change to immigration.

Of course, all of those things are still true today, in 2019, as we find ourselves entering year 3 of the special kind of insane, absurdist hell that is the Trump administration. It's possible that the stakes are higher now than they were in 2017 or 2018. We're mired in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history; there's a full-on humanitarian crisis at the southern border; it's becoming increasingly evident that a plethora of shady shit went down between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, and the 2020 election is starting to peak its nose out over the horizon. And yet, this year's event seemed to lack the urgency of marches past.

Perhaps this is just an example of the L.A. laid-backness to which I am still becoming accustomed. To be sure, there was still a very good turnout, in my eyes at least, at City Hall this afternoon. Maybe I'm just not yet connected with as many politically active folks out here as I was in Philadelphia. 

Perhaps everyone is still riding the high of the Blue Wave that swept through the 2018 midterms, and taking a breather before what will surely be a marathon to the next presidential election in November 2020. 

Accusations of anti-Semitism among the Women's March leadership have shrouded this year's marches in controversy, and also may have affected turnout. I briefly considered not attending the march after learning about the division among the organization's leaders. Not only do I not want to be associated with any movement that discriminates against anyone, I'm irritated that this is what the movement has become. If women want to be leaders, we need to act like leaders, and that means putting aside individual prejudices and squabbles for the greater good. I absolutely think it is important for women of color to have a seat at the table for leading these events and this movement. I don't think they have to be beyond reproach, or that they can't have evolving attitudes and learning curves like we all do. But you can't fight discrimination while discriminating, and you can't fight hate with hate. That sort of approach will sink this movement like a dang torpedo. 

After more research, I learned that the Women's March LA is not associated with the national Women's March, Inc. organization, which is why I felt comfortable attending. And while I'm glad I went (marching when it's 70 degrees and sunny is far preferable to marching when its 35 degrees and cloudy or rainy), I can't help but wonder if it's the best use of my (or anyone's) civic duty time. Yes, gathering together in a show of strength and solidarity has its value, but what did we ultimately accomplish today? To remind the Trump administration that we are unhappy with his governance? He already knows that, and may or may not care. Did we end the government shutdown? Resolve the humanitarian crisis at the border? Magically add another 10 years to Ruth Bader Ginsberg's life?

I know this all may sound rather pessimistic, but I don't think this is a time to be a wide-eyed optimist, either. The fact is, putting on our pink pussy hats, pulling out our "A woman's place is in the House and the Senate" signs, and taking to the streets once a year is not going to do a whole lot to stop Trump and his cronies from implementing more dangerous, harmful policies; stacking courts with conservative judges, and, God forbid, winning re-election in 2020.  

I think, more than anything, this year's march was an opportunity to reflect on what I'm doing to be proactive in working to make my country a safer, more inclusive, more equitable place. I'm not entirely sure what that looks like yet, but I'll be sure to keep you posted when I do.