After a few days, my mind has been able to process the amazing and inspirational voices I heard this past Sunday at the Minnesota Women’s March Hear Our Voice event.
Instead of hosting a march again this year, the Minnesota Women’s March decided to host an evening filled with inspiration and opportunities to take action and get involved. It felt like the right move to me – last year, thousands of women stood up and marched, and this year we were taking action that wasn’t just symbolic. The marches are powerful and great, but the event this year seemed really geared toward digging in and taking action.
The event was pretty much everything I was looking for. It started off with an action hour, where people were free to peruse different booths and talk to a variety of different organizations about their causes, and how to volunteer and get involved. The action hour also included a meet-and-greet with a variety of female politicians running for office in the upcoming election. There were also cards people could use to write down what they’d done in the past year to support women’s rights, and a set of lit up trees to hang their cards on.
While I was seated next to the trees, a little girl came over to hang her card up on the tree. Her list of action items was so lengthy I was both impressed and also motivated to do more with my time this year.
Then, Nancy Lyons, the event’s MC and world’s most passionate and energetic female, took the stage to announce the evening’s lineup. There were a plethora of incredible speakers throughout the event, but I was most looking forward to hearing from Representative Ilhan Omar, who is one of the most poised, eloquent, and if we’re being honest, regal individuals to ever walk the planet. She is so inspirational and cool and about-ten-minutes-in-to-the-event-she-walked-right-past-me-and-said-hello-and-I-almost-died.
When she walked on stage, the crowd lost it.
One highlight from the speech: when she referenced Trump’s recent comments, saying, “I am an immigrant – a refuge from one of those ‘shithole countries,’ but I am proud of who I am.”
Damn.
Other awesome quote from her speech: “I was raised to believe women have ruled kingdoms and will rule capitals.”
Damn again.
Representative Omar is so well-spoken and eloquent – her voice is calm, but with a palpable strength behind it. I can’t wait to see what her term as a representative has in store.
She mentioned at the beginning of her speech that she had been feeling sick, and wasn’t sure if she was going to make it to the event that day, but had been inspired by her daughter, who had rallied together ten young women from her school to participate in the event.
That general concept was what inspired me most about the event. There were strong, powerful, inspiring women on the stage – but most impactful to me were the women who were simply attending the event. There were so many mothers who had brought their daughters, or groups of young women who had come together, and I kept wondering what the world was going to look like once those young women got hold of it.
I never had the opportunity to experience something like the Women’s March while I was growing up, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up with that level of support and power behind you, to hear those empowering voices at such a young age. Those young women are going to grow up to be forces to be reckoned with.
It gave me a lot of hope, because often I wonder how the current political climate will affect our young people. Will the craziness of this administration and political climate become normalized? I wonder what kinds of lessons some of the headlines in the news are teaching our young people, and it honestly worries me. How do you teach accountability if it is absent in our political leaders? How do you teach honesty with a president who stretches the truth at best, and flat-out lies at worst? How do you teach kindness when hate has become a commodity, traded for political prowess and an argumentative upper hand?
Those questions were washed away on Sunday, because for every bad thing in the world, I saw hope in every one of those young women and men who showed up to take action on Sunday. They were the most inspiring people at the event in my eyes, and I can’t wait to see what they do.
Cheetos for snack, not for president.
Preach, girl.
The other side of her sign said “Who run the world?” and approximately ten million people stopped to take photos of her. She was super adorable and energetic. I overheard her mother ask her if she expected so many people to like her sign, and the little girl shook her head. Her mom quietly whispered to her that she was a role model at the event, and the little girl hoisted her sign higher in the air.
I hope the future will be like that. Strong, kind, and devoid of hatred.
Hear Our Voices wrapped up with one of my favorite aspects of the event: a list. You know how I like my lists. This one, in particular, gave you a list of ways you could become engaged in your community, educate yourself, and help others. I for one, cannot wait to start checking things off.
If you couldn’t make it to the march, you can get your own copy of the list by clicking here. Study up. Speak up. Show up.
We can do better this year, and you can be damn sure I will.
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