I’ll keep this short, because as a guy, my job is to give the microphone to the women, to the minorities, to the oppressed. I’m not the best person in the world, but I try my best to support all of the oppressed, in whatever ways I can. I’m not a leader kind of person, I’ve always been more naturally a fan kind of person. Support those I love, cheer for them, love people unconditionally, and be there for people when they fall, to help them get back up. Support the weak against the powerful and yea.
Anyways, I went to the Seattle women’s march. It was cool. I have social anxiety, so big crowds frighten me, so I rarely go to big marches and/or protests, but I went to the women’s march so yea. It was a cheerful hopeful environment, uplifting in spirit. I was too scared to actually join any of the chants, but at the least, it felt empowering to be there. I’m always crazy obsessed with saving the world, but that can make my depression really unhealthy bad because the darkness and evil in the world is just overwhelming, bringing good to the world often just seems a worthless hopeless task. It weighs me down. Being at the women’s march though, it was good. To be around so many people who haven’t given up. To be around so many people who still have hope, who still believe in the goodness of others. Not just women in general, but mothers, fathers, college kids, grandmothers and grandfathers, children, the disabled and more. It was frustrating at first that I only moved a block in an hour, and I posted that on fb in frustration, but afterwards I realized there was over 130,000 people at the march, so I understood why I didn’t get far. I won’t complain about slow marches in the future. Anyways, the women’s march was empowering, for many reasons, but it made me realize I don’t have to save the world. I don’t need to put the whole world’s suffering on my shoulders and end up self-harming at night because everything feels so hopeless. I don’t have to try to be a hero, because there were 130,000 other people who came out and said women’s rights are human rights. That’s 130,000 warriors. 130,000 fighters. 130,000 witches. So yea, it was cool.
As I said earlier, I’m not really a leader kind of person, I wouldn’t make for a good organizer, but for those who are organizers, from my own personal opinion, it would be cool to have more big marches like this. There could be marches every weekend, when people are off work and can come, like they did for this women’s march. More women’s marches. More human rights marches. Marches for healthcare for all. Also, at the Seattle women’s march, the speakers embraced the indigenous women, the Muslim women with a special recognition of the Palestinian’s, black women, trans women, Latin American women. That solidarity, where feminism means fighting for all of the oppressed, and seeks to remove all systems of oppression, is so key. The women’s march I was simply a tiny part in, and the women’s marches I saw all across the country, marched on universal principles of women’s rights and human rights. Feminism. Not white feminism, corporate feminism, or bourgeois feminism. Just feminism. Keep it that way. Women’s rights and human rights are universal, let’s not allow anyone to ever co-opt these marches and movements into anything less than that.
adamkendall2 