Political participation is essential to democracy. Protest is in fact such an essential part of political participation that it is a guaranteed right. And not just any right to be exact, it is included in our very first constitutional amendment.
Saturday, January the 21st, I was privileged with the opportunity to peacefully assemble and march on the Capital with hundreds of thousands of my fellow diverse Americans.
I marched because I wholeheartedly believe in the principles this country was supposedly founded on, that all are created equal, and that all deserve to be treated fairly. I marched because history has proven that nonviolent movements are a vehicle to bring about societal change.
We marched for so much more than just gender equality. We marched for social, racial, economic and environmental justice collectively, because when a government promptly removes its agendas on Climate Change, LGBTQ+ rights, Civil Rights, and all pages concerning sexual and domestic violence against women, those provisions become urgent to protect.
After attending the Women’s March on Washington this past Saturday, I was amazed at what I saw. Never in my life have I experienced such unity and diversity together in such vast quantities. Despite this however, it seems that there are a few men and women (mostly rural, white, straight, and Christian appears to be the troubled demographic) that are having quite the difficult time understanding the validity and urgency of the movement. Therefore, I would like to introduce a few of the many reasons as to why this march was so important.
Healthcare. One of the Trump administration’s first attacks was of The Affordable Care Act. Because who cares if my best friend’s brother can afford treatments that he would die without for his rare form of brain cancer, or if families living below the poverty line can afford a simple check-up, as long as the costs go down, am I right? (No, no it is not right.) Along with allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions like brain cancer, removing the Affordable Care Act also allows insurance companies to choose not to cover contraception. Guess what happens when contraception becomes unaffordable to women already living in poverty? That’s right, the abortion rate increases.
Healthcare. Specifically, women’s healthcare. The majority of Americans identify as pro-choice. In fact, 7 out of 10 Americans support Roe V. Wade and a women’s right to a safe and legal abortion. Many women marched to protect that right, as the Trump administration has made clear that they plan to threaten it. In fact, within the first week of the administration, President Trump reinstated the “Global Gag Rule.” This rule prohibits any non-governmental organization that offers abortion as an option, or that refers patients to other facilities for abortion, from receiving funding for family planning from the U.S. This means that an organization can’t even use its own money in providing abortions, providing abortion counseling to their patient, or referring a patient to another place for that necessary medical care. Not only will this lack of funding cut access to contraception for millions of women (in turn, actually increasing the abortion rate) but according to The New York Times, “It will also curb access to cancer screenings and maybe even undermine vaccination campaigns and efforts against H.I.V. and the Zika virus. The upshot: Thousands of impoverished, vulnerable women will die."
And what happens in the United States and other countries around the world when contraception becomes unaffordable, and access to a safe and legal abortion is limited? Abortions become dangerous, and deadly. That sixteen year old girl who was raped at a party and got pregnant? Yeah, she just threw herself down a flight of stairs. But it’s okay, I get it. It’s cognitive dissonance. You think that outlawing abortions would actually stop abortions from happening. Kind of like you think outlawing guns would stop gun related violence and crime from hap… oh, wait. Yeah, never mind it doesn’t work like that, does it?
Immigration. Here are the facts. The majority of undocumented immigrants are undocumented because they have overstayed their work visas, not because they were lucky enough to make it passed thousands of border patrol agents and miles of barbed wire fencing. In fact, border crossings are the lowest they have been in the past twenty years. But by all means, let's spend 25 billion dollars on a pointless border wall while our roads crumble, our public schools fail our children, and our veterans starve on the streets. And banning immigrants based on their religion? That is straight up illegal, as in unconstitutional in every measure of the word. But inciting fear of immigrants and encouraging xenophobia? That is just a good old fashioned defining characteristic of fascism.
But can we all get behind the protection of the environment at least? I mean, I may live in a liberal bubble, but I’m pretty sure that we’re all still from the same planet. Anyone on planet Earth should be bothered by an oil executive being nominated to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Anyone who appreciates democracy should be troubled by the Trump Administration issuing an order forbidding climate scientist to report their data to the media. You know, crucial data that the general public has a right to know, like that 2016 was the hottest year in recorded history, and the burning of fossil fuel only increases the amount of suffocating carbon in the atmosphere.
Yeah, you’re right. We had no idea why we were marching. Not a damn one of us.
Except maybe her.
