A woman raised in a conservative family explains how travel, diverse friendships, gender discrimination, and sixteen years raising four kids alone changed her politics. She's marching on Washington because she believes character means kindness and courage, not power or money, and she sees those qualities missing in incoming officials.
There's an historic event happening in just a few days, and no, I'm not talking about the inauguration. I'm talking about the Women's March on Washington, D.C. I was raised in a right-wing conservative family, and for many years I accepted that worldview. But life happened, and along the way I lived and traveled overseas, I made friends with people from very different backgrounds, I suffered gender discrimination and sexual harassment. And I struggled for 16 years to raise 4 children on my own. More recently, I went through 2 years of unemployment where the now much-maligned social safety nets helped me to stay afloat while I looked for a job. But along the way, these key experiences changed my worldview and taught me an important lesson: It's not what people say they believe, It's how they treat others. It's qualities like kindness, compassion, self-restraint, generosity, good manners, and courage. Those are the things that count, not money, power, fame, personal charisma, or slick words. And yet too many of those who will run our federal government for the next 4 years lack virtually all of the qualities that distinguish human beings from vicious predators. That's why I and my husband will join hundreds of thousands of other Americans in Washington, D.C. this coming Saturday to show that we are gravely concerned about the threats to human rights and our Constitution posed by this new administration. I hope you'll join us. Thank you.
