I Know You Were Marching Right Beside Me

Dear The Mums,

Although I don’t know what kind of news coverage there is where you are, I hope you know that Donald Trump is this country’s new president – and that from the perspective of many Americans, he’s wreaking havoc on our democracy.

As the National Organization for Women has reported, immediately following his inauguration, he:

• Removed from the White House website research and reports on rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
• Stripped the Department of Labor’s website of a report on lesbians, bi, gay and transgender people and LGBT workplace discrimination.
• Wiped clean from the White House website information on the threat of climate change and efforts to combat it.

The new president also is having a field day with executive orders, and within 72 hours of taking office, signed executive orders to:

• Dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
• Reinstate the Global Gag Rule on women.
• Proceed with the Keystone and Dakota pipelines.

Photo: Heavy.com

Even as we’re bracing for a Supreme Court nominee and other actions that will attempt to erode women’s rights and civil rights of countless Americans, an unprecedented grassroots movement is gaining momentum. Last Saturday – one day after the president’s inauguration – millions of women (and plenty of men, too) took to the streets in cities across this country and around the world, peacefully marching to demonstrate, again in the words of NOW, “that women’s rights and civil rights will not be rolled back.”

For the first time in many decades, we’re proving that we know what democracy looks like, we’re exercising our right to speak truth to power, and we’re standing up for what is right and just – for women and men, immigrants, people of color, gays, lesbians, transgender people, Muslims, and anyone who calls this country home.

I’m quite sure last week’s march was only the beginning of our work to protect the freedoms and opportunities this country offers us – and that we, unfortunately, can no longer take for granted. Secure in my own beliefs as a feminist, an American, a liberal Jew, and a human being, I am prepared to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty in an effort to make America think again. In the meantime, I was beyond proud to join with hundreds of thousands of other sign-toting New Yorkers in the march up Fifth Avenue – and I know you were there too, marching right beside me.

Miss you…xoxo.
~ Boo!