In the midst of all the shadows we have experienced over the past few months, on Saturday, January 21, 2017, something new has emerged--A New Human Narrative.
A narrative of solidarity, empowerment, meaning, purpose, the gathering of the tribes, a true collective journey.
It was a Narrative of Resistance, as my friend Ann Badillo coined it.
It was global, and it was exhilarating. For those of us who were privileged to attend one of these marches - the energy, coherence, love, solidarity we felt was something we will cherish for a long time.
Almost No arrests were made (as far as has been reported to this point), people were genuinely kind to one another. In the march I attended in San Francisco, people were smiling to each other, even when the lack of space, the pouring rain, and the cold made us huddle together and sometimes bump into each other, trying to negotiate our limited urban space.
I have never been in such a huge crowd of people without any sense of fear and overwhelm. On the contrary - I felt so safe amongst the thousands of people marching together.
The months before were mired by the hate rhetoric, spewed by an infantile, illegitimately elected leader and those who follow him. Their rhetoric is an old one: us versus them, ancient xenophobia, racism, misogyny, and anti-intellectualism. But out of the void of hate a new voice has emerged. It has been growing globally for a long time, but on this weekend of the 21st of January, it was born.
A voice that has many faces, colors, creed, walks of life and manifestations.
It wasn’t one voice but a multitude of voices weaving together a new web, a new story, in solidarity.
It was the solidarity that struck me the most: Women of all walks of life, men, LGBTQ, disabled, people of color, all ages, Native Americans, different nationalities, different countries, all came together to march the globe.
We were globally over 4.8 million strong - but I am sure the numbers who tuned in were far larger.
Within our peaceful, non-violent protest, we made our voices heard.
We wrote our memes on signs. Some needed to vent the anger towards the unspeakable attacks on women’s bodies, immigrants, the disabled, LGBTQ rights and another dissent .
Some created whimsical memes to pronounce the significance of this march and this time.
Looking at all these signs, the clarity of the message and the stand.
No for oppression - Yes for solidarity!
I struggled all week to decide what I should write on my sign.
At the end this is how I went to the march:
I wore white in honor of the Women's Suffragette movement that came before me. I wore a bandana with illustrations of breasts on my head (and did work well with the outfit).
This moment in time was a moment of the metanarrative, the moment of coming together and of our humanity waking up to it’s joined power. We do not know what the next days and years will bring, but after sharing space in solidarity with my fellow humans, I am full of hope.
I felt it before coming to the march and thus I wrote: “It’s A Sign” in colors fitting the history of the fine city of San Francisco.
I believe this is indeed a sign, both Figuratively and literally:
It's a sign - because every major city in the USA was marching!
It’s a sign - because there were marches on every continent in the world!
It's a sign - because it's the moment we've been waiting for!
It's a sign - because we will not accept a racist, fascist, misogynist tyrant and government!
It's a sign - because all people, all walks of life, all genders, all background have come together in solidarity!
It's a sign - because we are Fired Up and we are Ready to Go!