{"id":31840,"date":"2017-02-02T18:56:19","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T02:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/commentary-making-herstory\/"},"modified":"2017-02-02T18:56:19","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T02:56:19","slug":"commentary-making-herstory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/commentary-making-herstory\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Making ‘herstory’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The President of the United States and his team are ushering in sweeping changes to almost every facet of the federal government. More than half of Americans see these changes as at best disturbing and at worst deadly to the future of humanity and the planet, which sustains life. The day after the presidential inauguration, I joined at least two-dozen Juneau residents and more than 600 Alaskans in Washington D.C. at what is being called the largest protest since the Vietnam War. The Women\u2019s March on Washington inspired 600+ gatherings throughout the country and the world, including in Juneau. At this writing, the marches ignited protests at the White House and at airports around the nation in response to an executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim countries, suspending all refugee admission for 120 days, and barring all Syrian refugees indefinitely. The following are some of my observations and reflections on the experience at the rally\/march and what it means for America\u2019s unfolding future.<\/em><\/p>\n

My Women\u2019s March buddy Br\u00edd Furlong and I are pressed up against shiny green landscaping in front of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, one of the many museums that make up the iconic Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The bushes keep us from being pushed over by a wall of people. Our feet are periodically entangled in the roots as lines of people try to move forward, only to get stuck in this mass of femininity.<\/p>\n

Above us, people are up in the trees and along retaining walls. At 25, Br\u00edd, an Irish tour guide on a trip to North America between jobs, has a head start on middle-aged me as we brave the biggest crowd of our lives. As far as we can see in front, beside and behind us are mostly women, children, teenagers and some men. Many are holding signs opposing the 45th president, inaugurated the day before. I raise my arms up and snap photos of some of the more clever messages emerging from the mass: \u201cJustice is What Love Looks Like in Public,\u201d \u201cRespect Existence or Expect Resistance,\u201d and \u201cThis is Not a Moment, It\u2019s the Movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of heads don knit or sewn \u201cpussy hats,\u201d pink hats with points like a cat\u2019s ears, inspired by the new president\u2019s vulgar remarks, caught by a hot mic in 2005. Planes, buses and carloads of women and families en route to the event were filled with people either wearing or furiously finishing their hand wrought creations. My friend Alison Krein presented me with a pair of carefully knitted hot pink hats.<\/p>\n

I brought both to Washington, confident that the right person would present herself as the recipient of the extra hat. It turned out to be Br\u00edd, a hostel roommate and good luck fairy, all of 5\u20191\u201d, with fair Irish skin. Navigating with Google iPhone maps flummoxes me. Br\u00edd rocks it, one of many qualities that make her an excellent march buddy. Plus I couldn\u2019t miss the pink hat on her ginger curls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the idea of people passing around a pattern to knit a hat,\u201d she observes in her Irish lilt. \u201cIt\u2019s a brilliant form of protest.\u201d Among the many things Br\u00edd doesn\u2019t understand about American culture are our lenient gun laws. \u201cWe have an unarmed police force,\u201d she notes. \u201cThat\u2019s because we\u2019ve had civil wars where everyone had guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

A jumbotron (a huge television screen) and column speaker towers over the mass about a quarter-mile in front of us, beaming speeches bookended by feminist icon Gloria Steinem at the start and black activist, writer and scholar Angela Davis towards the end. Steinem,<\/p>\n

82, reflected on civil rights and feminist American history, affirming that this day was far from a one-off:<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of us individually and collectively will never be the same again. When we elect a possible president we too often go home. We\u2019ve elected an impossible president; we\u2019re never going home. We\u2019re staying together. And we\u2019re taking over.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the following hours are moving stories and inspirational words from lesser known but equally or more powerful poets, musicians, and activists on issues like women\u2019s reproductive rights, LBGTQ non-discrimination, the North Dakota Access Pipeline resistance and welcoming immigrants.<\/p>\n

A half million people gathering together in the same area means a half million unique experiences. I can only share what I saw, heard and felt. Some people couldn\u2019t hear or even see the presenters. Others were in full view of the stage and had enough personal space to a move around a bit. Robin Leighty of Anchorage was one of those people. She and I meet sitting next to each other on the Minneapolis to Seattle portion of our mileage ticketed slog back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this man, holding a sign and wearing a Syrian flag draped around his shoulders,\u201d Robin tells me. \u201cHis sign read: \u2018Syrian Refugee. Not a Terrorist. I\u2019m a Muslim. Honored to be here.\u2019 A woman walked up to him and handed him an American flag on a stick. The crowd spontaneously started chanting, \u2018No Hate. No Fear. Immigrants are Welcome Here.\u2019 He put his hands over his heart.<\/p>\n

I was crying at this point, along with my niece and a bunch of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listening to Robin tell her story, so am I.<\/p>\n

Understandably, this historic, inclusive, intersectional event goes way over its allotted 10 a.m.-1 p.m. time slot. Perhaps the most powerful and moving fifteen minutes begin when musical artist and actress Janelle Monae takes the stage around 2:15. Wearing a black sweatshirt with the words Fem the Future on the front and Freedom over Fear on the Back, Monae leads a call and response honoring the life of Sandra Bland, the twenty-eight-year-old African-American woman found dead in a Texas jail cell last summer after she was arrested by police on a routine traffic stop. Monae calls out, \u201cSandra Bland\u201d and then directs the crowd to yell back \u201cSay Her Name!\u201d Standing alongside Monae are the mothers of Erik Garner, Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, young black men slain in controversial, high profile incidents during the Obama years. Each mother leads the call and response for her son, as an all-female drum band rocks the throng.<\/p>\n

What is our nation becoming? In recent years, we\u2019ve not been officially at war on our own soil, or under the thumb of a ruthless dictator. And yet, more than a half-century after the birth of the civil rights movement, we\u2019re chanting at a rally with mothers of color who have lost their sons due to abuse of power. The late Argentinian songstress Mercedes Sosa\u2019s rendition of Sting\u2019s They Dance Alone <\/em>rings in my head. Sosa had to live in exile during the reign of the brutal dictator Jorge Videla. Here are the lyrics in part:<\/p>\n

They\u2019re dancing with the dead<\/p>\n

They dance with the invisible ones<\/p>\n

Their anguish is unsaid<\/p>\n

They\u2019re dancing with their fathers<\/p>\n

They\u2019re dancing with their sons<\/p>\n

They\u2019re dancing with their husbands<\/p>\n

They dance alone<\/p>\n

They dance alone<\/p>\n

Eight years ago, my then 22-year old daughter Kaitlyn and I attended the inauguration of Barack Obama. We stood in the freezing cold under leafless trees on the edges of the Capitol. A sense of positivity was palpable. We felt the weight of slavery, oppression and racism lifted, at least for one day. Black women wore long, billowing down-filled coats and fur hats. They had a singular glint in their eyes, a lightness in their step. We were Alaskans ironically underdressed for January in Washington D.C. These mother bears warmed us with big hugs, nearly lifting us off our feet. They were Obama\u2019s congregation, voicing affirmative \u201cmmm hmms\u201d and \u201camens\u201d to his calls for personal, civic and global responsibility. Two million of us packed the National Mall. We felt part of a truly united states.<\/p>\n

After the ceremony, we were walking along the edge of the Capitol when the helicopter carrying George and Laura Bush took flight above us. A woman burst out from a bottleneck of walkers and shouted into the sky, \u201cfree at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last!\u201d For the next eight years, Republicans in Congress did everything they could to squelch Obama\u2019s initiatives. Two terms later, public broadcasters now call us the \u201cdivided states of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than four hours into the rally part of the 2017 Women\u2019s March on Washington, attention spans wane. Sore backs and the likely need for a bathroom break spur the mass move from the National Mall over to Constitution Avenue in the direction of the White House. It\u2019s more like a crawl than a march. Protesters spill in all directions, pink-hatted people everywhere, our destination the Ellipse Park. Throughout the 52-acre green oval, circles of people are drumming, singing and voicing various chants at the same time. One of the more resonant is, \u201cWe need a leader, not a creepy tweeter.\u201d Hundreds of signs line a fence, in view of the White House.<\/p>\n

Back in 2009, our Ethiopian cab driver was a sweet man with eyes the color of warm amber. He told us he was going back home soon for the birth of his second child, confident that his wife and three children would join him for a better life in the U.S. In 2017, under the leadership of a new protectionist president, his peers do not have the same confidence.<\/p>\n

The Uber driver of a few Juneau sister marchers en route to the airport wore a hijab. She told them she was afraid to leave her house on Inauguration Friday or Women\u2019s March Saturday. \u201cIf there was any chaos or rioting, I was scared I\u2019d be blamed for it because I am Muslim,\u201d she told Kerri Willoughby. \u201cYou were marching for me. I watched the rally and the march online and was amazed. Now I am less afraid and more filled with hope.\u201d As Willoughby recounted in a Facebook post, when she, Libby Bakalar and Holly Handler bid farewell to their driver, she hugged each of them, repeating, \u201cthank you for marching, thank you for marching.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the top of President Trump and team\u2019s alarmist agenda is the building of a wall to keep out immigrants south of the U.S. border with Mexico. Late in the rally, civil rights activist and University of California Santa Cruz faculty Angela Davis, 73, reminds the crowd: \u201cThis is a country anchored in slavery and colonialism, which means for better or for worse the very history of the United States is a history of immigration and enslavement. Spreading xenophobia, hurling accusations of murder and rape and building walls will not erase history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the nun on the bus,\u201d announces Roman Catholic nun, lawyer, and social justice lobbyist Sister Simone Campbell, 71. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve never seen anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether age seven or 70, during that march we made American history. We heard speeches, poems, music and more from people of many colors and ways of seeing the world. But the most important message of the day was the same: resistance and activism in the face of racism and sexism do not stop here. They begin here.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re making it a daily practice to contact our representatives in Congress. Some of us are donating to or joining non-profits that work for social, civic or environmental justice. Some of us are considering running for office.<\/p>\n

In short, we\u2019re fired up.<\/p>\n

As we take action, we may take inspiration from the testimony of Sandra Bland\u2019s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, to the Congressional Caucus for Black Women and Girls in April, 2016: \u201cAm I angry? Absolutely. I\u2019m not angry enough to create a riot where I burn things down, but I will create a riot, I will set off so that people will understand that this is real. Movements move. Activists activate. We have got to stop talking and move. So I leave you with this: it is time to wake up, get up, step up, or shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could sum up the last two days as the tale of two hats,\u201d observed my Irish march buddy, Br\u00edd. \u201cThe crisp, red with white lettered, Make America Great Again ball cap at the Inauguration and the loosely knit pink pussy hat at the Women\u2019s March.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s symbolism in that statement I\u2019ll have to ponder for a while. In the meantime, I\u2019ll appreciate the words of the black Uber driver I met en route back to Alaska. He credited our new president with the first step towards bringing much-needed changes to our nation: \u201cLook what he did! His first day in office, he brought a record number of women to Washington D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Katie Bausler is a writer who resides in the island kingdom of Douglas, Alaska. She can be reached at katiebausler@me.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President of the United States and his team are ushering in sweeping changes to almost every facet of the federal government. More than half of Americans see these changes as at best disturbing and at worst deadly to the future of humanity and the planet, which sustains life. The day after the presidential inauguration, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":31841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31840"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}