Why I’m Not Marching

Today, I am not marching in DC.
While I normally love an event with liberal-minded people in large crowds, I just couldn’t get myself to go to the Women’s March on Washington, today. Immediately following the election I didn’t jump on board for this event, because it just didn’t call to me. Then I had a friend from Jersey that wanted to go, so we planned a trip, agreeing that up until the last minute, we would be willing to cancel if it just didn’t feel right.
In the end, it never felt right. 
I loved the Rally to Restore Sanity. It was one of the greatest moments I’ve every shared with hundreds of thousands of other people (second to being on the streets of New Orleans after the Saints won the Superbowl). The positive attitude of everybody that I met at that event was unbelievable, and while no major change occurred as a direct result, it was an overall good time with good people (the friendliness was second only to New Orleanians hugging strangers on Bourbon Street after the Saints won the Superbowl). 
As we move toward the future under President Trump, we all need to look for ways to keep the checks and balances in place. One constitutionally protected right that we have is the power to assemble and protest. But throughout history, these marches have made little progress. The larger purpose that they serve, however, is to bring together crowds of like-minded people to share ideas, inspiration, and ways to move forward. When I planned to attend the march, I was attending with the hope that I would have many of these productive conversations. What I’ve realized, however, is that I’d prefer to have those conversations with people that aren’t attending.
I don’t feel like I need to be talking to people that are hurting. I feel like I need to be talking to the people that still don’t understand why so many of my friends are so passionate about expressing their pain. Wearing a pink pussyhat in a sea of pussyhats isn’t going to convince the old white men that I recently sat next to, at a bar in rural New Jersey, that these demonstrations aren’t a case of liberal butt-hurt. The protesters have real concerns, and they aren’t as simple as not getting our first female president.
I took the money that I would have spent traveling to DC and donated it to the ACLU, an organization that I feel is doing the most work to protect the little people that may not be protected under this new administration. I handed off my pink pussyhat, hand-knitted by a woman that would have marched if she were physically able, to another person who is planning to attend. I’m hoping that today is safe and productive for all of my friends that are in our nation’s capital, and that they come back with inspiration to productively move our country forward.
I’m up to my own plans, some of which have nothing to do with politics.
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