Sunday, January 22, 2017

Which America will it be?



Donald Trump was sworn in as 45th president of this country on January 20, 2017 and wasted no time in beginning to dismantle all the Obama Administration had worked so hard to accomplish. I marched in the Women’s March held in NYC on January 21rst.  The main march was in Washington, DC but I couldn’t get there. Why at 71 years of age would I want to march? Well…I marched on my first picket line when I was fifteen years old in front of Woolworth's in Berkeley, CA.  This was over fifty years ago when the Civil Rights Movement was spreading throughout the country calling for an end to unjust, bigoted practices. Dr. King had called for sympathy pickets because of Woolworth’s racist policies in the south.

I ‘m marched in the Women's March because I want to know which America, Trump wants to make great again.  Is it the America that bombed baby girls in Sunday school in Birmingham, Alabama…or the America that murdered voter registration workers in Mississippi?  Is it the America that brutally killed Emmet Till…or the America that firebombed freedom rider buses?  Is it the America that lynched black men leaving bodies hanging from trees…the strange fruit that Billie Holiday sang about in her song? Or is it the America where the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) burned crosses on black people’s property then terrorizing and killing them? Is it the America that assassinated Medgar Evers... or the America that had segregated Armed Forces until the Vietnam War? Soldiers would return from war still facing the same intolerance and hatred prior to risking their lives for their country. I was alive when all this was happening in America. I picketed, I sang, I marched, I went to jail. I do not want to go back in time. So I want to know which America is Trump talking about making great again?


The Women’s March was all inclusive in addressing human rights and justice for all. One of the signs stated LOVE TRUMPS HATE! It was not about gender, it was not about race but it was about unity…the good people in the world coming together in the struggle to keep democratic ideals alive and well in America.