Daily Chronicle / Daily-Chronicle.com • Monday, January 23, 2017
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The Women’s March and our call to action VIEWS Elizabeth Neukirch When I arrived at the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday, I was wearing one item I hadn’t brought with me: a white and pink beaded bracelet with F-E-M-I-N-I-S-T spelled out in block letters. A girl no more than 9 years old made the bracelet. She traded with my group of friends for some pink hats one of us made for the March. I thought of this moment throughout the day. Because of massive crowds in the D.C. metro system, we arrived late and missed the speech given by feminist icon and honorary march co-chair Gloria Steinem. I had always hoped to see Steinem speak. In fact, before Saturday I would have said it was one of the top things I was looking forward to at the march. Yet this event made me realize this movement is more about that young girl than those who came before us. Feminism is our responsibility now. We are the ones who must champion and protect women’s rights. While Steinem, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis and countless others led the way for decades, now is our time to take action and get organized. Given that nearly half a million people attended the Women’s March on Washington, it is clear people are ready to accept this charge. The scale of the march is significant. It was nearly five times the number of people who lived in DeKalb County as of the 2015 Census. It was people standing shoulder-to-shoulder, filling the streets and sidewalks and national parkland for miles, a sea of marchers stretching to the horizon. Yet there were zero arrests. People came from across the nation and world to march in D.C. (I personally saw contingents from Canada and Iceland) and from incredibly diverse backgrounds, all with intentions of solidarity, sisterhood and shared values. This was a textbook example of why the First Amendment exists. We the people came to peacefully assemble and exercise our right to free speech. We also came together, as the First Amendment states, to “peti-
Elizabeth Neukirch for Shaw Media
Demonstrators are seen standing outside Saturday at the Women’s March on Washington near the Washington Memorial in Washington, D.C. tion (our) government for a redress of grievances.” The incoming administration and rhetoric of the past election cycle frequently insulted and targeted women from all walks of life: black women, Mexican women, Muslim women and sexual assault survivors among them. The Women’s March on Washington was a reminder to our new lawmakers on their first day in office that we will not stand for misogynistic or otherwise divisive discourse and policymaking. We are prepared to mobilize in support of all human rights causes that intersect with our diverse identities as women and Americans. And we are not alone. Marches held in solidarity with the D.C. event occurred in more than 600 cities across the nation and world, from Chicago and Los Angeles to London, Paris and Cape Town. These are not just individual protests; this is the beginning of a new movement for feminism. It has long been stirring in that place just beyond our line of sight; in the recesses of hearts that have been broken by inequities but yearn to
fight and love again; and in the fervent human rights activists across this nation who for too long have waited for a linchpin moment to come together across physical and demographic divides. Marching on Saturday, I saw signs that read “Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly With Your God” and “Education Not Deportation” and “Black Lives Matter” and “Reproductive Freedom for All” and “Gun Violence Is A Women’s Issue” and “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance.” I saw innumerable fathers holding the hands of their daughters. I saw a New Orleans brass band of every skin color dressed in jumpsuits with a brick wall pattern, playing joyous music and dancing through the masses. I saw two Asian toddlers in their parents’ arms lead a call-andresponse chant (“Show me what democracy looks like!”) in their tiny voices, with the roar of adults echoing back in reply (“This is what democracy looks like!”). The march wound from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monu-
ment. Thousands of us continued on, assembling on the lawn and streets surrounding the White House. I found myself near a woman with a megaphone who was leading segments of the crowd in various chants. Another woman approached my group. She was alone. She asked whether we would like to start singing “The Star Spangled Banner” with her to try to get the crowd to join in. We approached the woman with the megaphone and requested her help. Then we all started singing our national anthem, projecting our voices to the rest of the crowd, and hundreds of people joined in, our voices filling the air, spilling out across the lawn in front of the house that symbolizes our democracy. We are all in this together.
• Elizabeth Neukirch is a Sycamore High School graduate and former longtime DeKalb County resident. She currently is a writer and PR professional in Chicago. Reach her at elizabeth. neukirch@gmail.com or on Twitter @EJNeukirch.