Dissent is Patriotic

“Dissent is Patriotic“

 As I write my blog post, I am currently in the middle of god knows where someplace in the countryside of Ohio. So almost anywhere in Ohio. I’m sorting through photos and trying to organize everything that happened this weekend.  Above is a photo of a friend and I walking through Washington. I’m just writing down my thoughts as they come along so this may be a very disoriented blog post. What you need to know is that my journey started at 2:30 PM when I boarded a train at Union to Naperville. After there was an accident on the tracks, I hitched a ride from Lisle IL to a Walmart parking lot in Naperville and waited patiently for a bus that would take me on a 14-hour bus ride to Washington D.C. The reason for my journey? I was going to stand in solidarity at the Women’s March on Washington. Yeah I know I identify as a man, I know that this is a march for women, but at the same time, I know that women should not have to be having this march in the first place. It’s 2017 and people are still fighting for their right to exist. We are living in an age where we as American Citizens have finally reached the boiling point to change this melting pot for the better.

So here I was, Marching in D.C., Representing every nasty woman that I’ve ever known that did not have the opportunity to drop everything they had planned and spend a weekend across the country. Representing every woman that has ever made an impact in my life. Representing what it means to be a Feminist until everyone, including myself, don’t have to explain the concept of equal rights to their relatives at the dinner table.

So the march itself had a very Woodstock-like feel. Hundreds of thousands of happy people marching for what they believe in. Though there were downsides. The number of people was so enormous that you would have to wait for hours to use a bathroom or buy food anywhere near the vicinity of the march. You’ve seen the pictures online, you’ve seen the media posts. The march itself was one of the most peaceful protests that I have ever been a part of. I never saw anyone fight. I never saw any police engage, and I never saw any open space that was uninhabited by human beings.

It was amazing.

It was a surreal experience. The amount of people that were generating positive energy engulfed the crowd. The sea of protesters ebbed and flowed into every open crevice. Cheers started and ended like a relentless, sonorous tsunami in the waves of pink pussyhats. There were so many people wading through the streets that the march route became more than 4 separate streams all flowing towards the White House. From the trickle of marchers at 8 am at the capitol building to the storm of justice that overtook this nation’s capital just hours later, every single person who could feel change in the storms they conjured up.

I can’t fathom into words the experience that I had this weekend in D.C. The sheer mass of content that I experienced this weekend could fill a novel. I am cutting this blog post short, but I ask everyone reading this one thing. We, the people, have the power to generate change. If you are passionate about something, or know that there is injustice out there, go out and fight for what’s right. It’s up to us to do the right thing. There will always be someone out there to support your beliefs, just ask the 3.3 Million people who marched this weekend around the world.