 |
|---|
|
|---|
Community leaders, institutions, and even entire communities can inspire us to do great work ourselves. They can serve as role models, spark new ideas in us, or provide us with a place to place our energy. There are a great deal of community members and places left unsung or only recognized by a narrow population and while we can never show all of the people that deeply affect and serve their communities, we hope to shine a light on and share the stories of some of those people and places and what they mean to their community.
March 6, 2017
Submitted by: Lisa Riley
I, as so many, have been completely despondent since the election. Besides knowing what a poor imitation of P.T. Barnum the president is, I work with many Donald Trump supporters, and I am having a difficult time understanding how they could fall for this very badly done con man. I find it difficult to look them in the eye or include them in a story or joke. I feel they have jeopardized my well-being, and in extension the world's well-being.
When I first heard of the Women's March on Washington, my younger son and I decided at once we would go. So, with my antibiotics for my infected sinuses, my orthopedic inserts in my shoes, and a purse full of tissues off we went to the Wilmington, Delaware, train station, the one named after Joseph Biden.
Getting on the train was the first of many emotional hits of the day. Completely packed! Every seat in every one of the 11 cars. We sat with the conductors who told us that Amtrak was able to put on 3 extra trains for the day. Each one of those were also sold out. It was a lighthearted ride with the excited conversations around us, including the conductors who were so happy with everyone's behavior and jovial attitude.
We walked from Union Station, helped across the street by a traffic cop swinging her pink hat, just following the crowd. Somehow we ended up behind the stage. At only 10am, the time the speakers were to start, I already felt like the Mighty Python soldiers, walking into a wall. We turned around, tried to get down another way and found the same thing. This was all done without pushing or shoving or tempers. People would just kind of reverse course and try a new way. It did not take long for us to figure out we were not getting to the stage, still don't know where it was, so we headed down the mall, our nation's mall.
Having been to the Smithsonian Museum many times, I was familiar with the area, but never had I seen it so beautiful: People, all kinds of people, all ages of people, just moving. There were things left from the inauguration still on the grounds: tents and some chairs and many port-a-potties. Although we were able to find one out of the way that was opened, we found out that all the port-a-potties left from the day before had been PADLOCKED. I cannot at this time think of anything that explains this new administration as well as a locked toilet. There seemed to have been someone with clippers that got about 20 of them opened. Feminine ingenuity.
We saw no food trucks and the wait for the café in the Smithsonian visitor center line seemed endless. But there were chocolate bars in the gift shop. With sugar and caffeine, I was set.
We kept heading to the Washington Memorial thinking that the march would have to come by us. It looked like the march had started and we joined the flow. It was not too long before the flow became a slow moving current. We timed the walk for one block to be 36 minutes.
I am making note of the inconveniences only to make the point that none of it mattered. There was no grumbling or complaining. Everyone just made the best of what was happening and all of us enjoying the moment. For the first time since November 8th, we had a purpose and a voice, and yes, even a smile.
There were all generations represented, but the majority were young. It was the young people that gave me hope. To be witness to their passion and dedication to do the right thing, that gave me hope. Even if the right thing to do is put themselves between a couple of anti-choice protesters and a very determined and very angry woman who wanted to walk through them. (Yes, that woman was me.) Those young men and women, so much more in tune with the spirit of free speech, saved me from embarrassing myself.
I think it was then that I realized we will be ok. It is going to be a long, dark battle to come. The war on ignorance and apathy is a most difficult fight. We, as a society, have become lazy in our job as citizens. We have sat back and allowed those less informed and less inquisitive to hijack what it means to be a successful American.
Size seems to have become the way the society has measured success. How big of a house, how big and fancy of a car, how much money can you get and how little do you need to give back to society or government. Although the size of the march was enormous, that was not the measure of success for me. What I saw that Saturday in DC was a younger generation teaching a clinic on citizenship. We cannot sit back and let others push this country in a direction we don't agree with and think an election every 4 years is the only recourse. We need to be active - in your face and loud. Unacceptable behavior is just not acceptable. Unacceptable policies are just that, unacceptable.
Before I went to Washington DC on January 21, 2017, I was worried and scared of what would become of this country under this administration. I am not anymore. These children of ours will teach us a new meaning of success, that community is not just your family and where you live. Community is the country and our place in the world. If they don't have a house bigger than the one they grew up in, if they don't take elaborate vacations, if they don't do the job their parents did - that is not a failure to them. Instead they seek to become the heart and mind of a democracy. Let the office holders know when they do something good, and let the world know when they have done something unjust. This young generation might just find a whole new way to measure success. I, for one, am in awe of them and hope they just let me to continue to walk beside them.