Why am I going to DC to participate in the Women's March on Washington?

Why am I going to DC to participate in the Women's March on Washington?

I've been asked why.

And I've been quoted in the High Country Press - http://www.hcpress.com/front-page/thousands-expected-attend-womens-march-washington-including-bus-full-locals.html

Yes, I did say that I think Donald Trump is crazy and dangerous.

And I do believe it.

But that's not the only reason I'm participating.


One of the reasons I decided to go was because I wanted to help increase the number of participants.  

I signed up very early.  

I had no idea it would grow to what it has grown to.

And that there would be sister marches all over this country.

AND

The world!

It has become a Global Day of Action.


As soon as I heard about this march, it became important to me to make a point in any way I could to the rest of the world that we do not all accept Donald Trump as our next president.

That we do not all feel the same way he does.

That we are not all racists.

That we do not all embody all the hatred he and his supporters do.


I am terrified, frankly, of where we'll be this time next year under Donald Trump and the appallingly shocking people he's choosing as cabinet members.

We're in danger, I fear, of completely losing the very things this country was founded on.


It's as though he's going through long lists of names and picking out the person who could do the most to dismantle the good that's been done in a particular area.  


I'm terrified that we're going to see World War III.


So, yes, I'm going to Washington, DC to march.


For women's rights, for civil rights, for common decency, for the planet, for ALL the things listed in The Women's March Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles.  For gender justice, for racial justice, for economic justice.  For reproductive freedom.  For LGBTQIA rights.  For peace.


I have a lot of Facebook friends who are unable to attend this march, so I'm writing down their names and putting them in my pocket.


They will be there in spirit.  With me.


And they'll be a comfort to me, knowing I'm not marching for all these things all by myself in a crowd of 200,000.  

I'll have friends with me.

Friends who believe in the same things I do.


I'll also have some friends from Boone with me.  We're riding up and back together on a bus. 

It's going to be a grueling trip.

We're leaving Boone at 11:55 pm on Friday night.  

We'll be getting back to Boone around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.


But we're standing up for what we believe in.


We're exercising our rights as given to us in the first amendment of the United States Constitution which, I believe, is at risk with our present congress and Donald Trump.

The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”


It's important to me to stand up for what I believe. 

It's important to me that I be in DC for this march.