We marched. They mocked. What's next?

@nicechess757

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA - The Women’s March on Washington D.C., and the sister marches around the nation and planet, were a balm to a wounded national soul. Sadly, even as we marched, spoke and rejoyced in the unity of our faith in one another, the people we needed to sway were moved only to mock us more.

My mission was to effect change and I feel like that only happened on one side of the wall that exists between those who marched and those who continue to mock us.

Rather than be a pink-pussy-hatted dot in the crowd in Washington, D.C., I decided to accept a last minute offer to come speak in front of The Chrysler Museum of Art, here at home.

The argument given by the organizers here was powerful. I was reminded that “Bad bills have flooded our state legislature that gravely endanger women’s and LGBTQ rights. People need to see that there is resistance here. They need to know they’re not alone”

It was a compelling argument, particularly in light of the fact that we currently have a president, a Press Secretary, Sean Spicer and a President Whisperer, Kelleyanne Conway, using the national stage and seat of power to mint their own reality.

I could easily see them spinning the D.C. march to say it doesn’t represent the “real” localities. It was all just elitists gathering to whine.

So I stayed in my city. Here’s what I said to the very diverse 3k marchers of all orientations, ethnicities, income levels and religions, who gathered there:

We call this a march because that word sends a message of power. For me, today is also a walk. I’m walking away from hate, fear and division towards the power of unity.

I create unity in the community through by teaching the game of chess to children, primarily to little girls. When I teach anyone to play chess I tell them the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. Then I tell them every pawn is a baby queen. (Norfolk Initiative for Chess Excellence)

Unfortunately, the election of Donald Trump, even after he dismissed women and advocated their abuse, makes that lesson hard for kids to believe.

What’s hard for me to believe is that the leader of our nation also dismisses science, facts and truth.

He strengthens hate towards the people I love, like my daughter who is a member of the LGBTQ community and my best friend, who belongs to the Islamic faith – the peaceful, Muslim religion.

Donald Trump has attacked my profession as a journalist so viciously that people think it’s OK to send me a photo of a shirt that advocates lynching me.

“Rope. Journalist. Tree. Some assembly required.”

That’s frightening. When I’m afraid I get angry and I don’t want to live angrily for the next four years.

I need to walk it off. That hasn’t been easy because, apparently, I’m a “WHINER,” a “LEFTY” and a “SNOWFLAKE.”

I let those first two names go. I’m keeping “SNOWFLAKE.”

After all, white is the traditional symbol of women’s suffrage. Like women, snowflakes are diverse, self-directed and brilliant. After our recent blizzard, I came to truly appreciate snowflakes - unity is their super power.

While an individual snowflake is fragile, when you put enough of them together in one place they can really wreck your plans. They can paralyze a government, shut down streets and freeze your foundation until your pipes burst.

Snowflake haters say, “Snow melts.”

Here’s where science in education makes a difference - snow is water and water isn’t going away.

Without it, you die of thirst. Too much of it and you drown.

We are the snowflakes and when we melt down it isn’t into a pool of tears.

You know what they call a snowflake in the south? Rain.

Sure, we may evaporate at the end of the march, but we’ll come back again and again as a hard rain to wash everything clean. As Donald Trump took the oath of office the rain began and it will not stop.

Let’s hear it for the snowflakes!

Inshallah. The next shirt see will read: Community. Unity. Respect. - Some national assembly required.

My grand feeling of accomplishment was short-lived as Facebook and local TV news posts of video from the event filled up with derision, dismissal and rebuke.

Not only men, but scores of women posted that they can’t understand why we marched. Popularly themes included: “Don’t women already have all their rights? What more do they want - free manni pedis?” and “Stop whining.”

We preached to a very large choir. However, many of the people we needed to reach fall into a category once reserved for extatic religious zealots who see us as the Devil. These folks immediately shut down to anything they percieve as being a threat to their new presidential sun god.

I get it. When they start singing the praises of Donald Trump and his nominees, I tend to tune out as well.

This political ecstasy, an altered state of consciouness, seems, for now, to be impenatrable. Demonstration isn’t the answer for how to get through the wall that’s been built in the minds of so many. This calls for deprogramming.

That’s where my focus now lies. There and in sharing The Indivisible Guide far and wide.

The next time I speak, it will not be to thousands, but to one person. I am making it my mission to meet, befriend and convince Davod Helldick that we are not his enemy.

If I have to eat at his restaurants every day for the next year, that’s what I’ll do.

As an olive branch I have not posted the names of his restaurants because I don’t want a boycott ro to have him flooded with rage.

I’ll keep you posted on how that goes and if the food is as good as it looks on his website.