womxnsmarch – fierce little lady

Friday was a dark moment in American history. After ousting top officials at the State Department, the president issued an executive order broadly construing his presidential powers to keep Muslim immigrants out of our country.

My husband is a Muslim immigrant. My daughter is the grandchild of Muslim immigrants. This country is made up of immigrants and refugees and those seeking asylum.

In his order, the president appealed to fear and xenophobia and racism, citing the 9/11 attacks to recklessly rupture U.S. relations with countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. The order imposed a 90-day suspension of immigration to the United States from certain predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen (note that the perpetrators of 9/11 were from none of these countries). Greencard holders in those countries were blocked reentry to the U.S. The order also placed a 120-day ban on entry of people with refugee status and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely.

This resulted in crisis for many. People flew into the U.S. with their refugee-status visas and personal possessions and were detained rather than allowed to enter the country. Those who have obtained visas and remain outside of the U.S., but who fall under the order’s sweeping provisions, may not use their visas to enter.

This is un-American. Where we board up our shores and wall our borders to those seeking refuge or opportunity here, we alienate important allies and strengthen our adversaries. Most importantly, we lose sight of our values that gave us the Constitution, ensuring rule of law, equal protection, and checks on power.

I am heartened by the outpouring of support protesters gave to those detained at the airports, by the ACLU attorneys who challenged the executive order, by the courageous Federal Judge Ann Donnoly who stayed the order, and by the journalists covering this and announcing where and when protests are happening.

These are the moments when we must offer our minds and bodies and voices to create change. We must cash in on our education and privilege and show up. We must teach our children to be kind, informed, and passionate. We must garner strength from the hope that came out of Friday’s events, support each other, and forge headlong into tomorrow. No matter how big the adversary, for our Constitutional values to prevail, we must never give up.

To My Fierce Little Lady,

We marched in the Seattle Womxn’s March today as a family. We joined over 120,000 people, many carrying creative signs and wearing handmade pink pussy hats. In Washington, D.C. over 500,000 people marched, and many, many more marched in cities around the country. (Your aunt said that the march she attended in Detroit was a spiritual experience.)

These are trying times that challenge even the most hopeful spirit. On Friday Donald Trump became the president of our country. He has consistently used his financial and political power to bully people and the press and, I fear, now, other countries, failing to take responsibility for the harm he creates. He has been publicly racist, sexist, bigoted, and hate-filled. He plans to fill his administration with self-interested, wealthy business leaders who in some cases do not believe in the protections the agencies they have been nominated to run are meant to enforce. The spate of Senate confirmation hearings last week heightened my fear that we may be facing attempts to completely dismantle government services we take for granted, like a public school system.

Trump has a Republican House and Senate and a vacancy to fill on the Supreme Court, which would in many cases provide a fifth and deciding conservative vote. (And let us not forget that this was President Obama’s to fill when Justice Scalia died in February of 2016.) Because of this consolidation of power, Trump is certain to undo years of progress in civil rights, climate change, education, healthcare, immigration, reproductive justice, campaign finance, and more. He threatens to undo the fundamental pillars of our democracy. He has shown consistent disregard for rule of law, and enters his presidency in direct violation of the US Constitution’s prohibition against presidential conflicts of interest due to his massive and intricate business dealings he will not give up in a manner that resolves those conflicts. He has aligned himself with foreign leaders who employ abusive tactics to maintain power. And he lies openly, compulsively.

It was important to me to share today’s historical march with you because I want you to understand that even in the face of all of this, you have a voice and your voice matters. Your brown skin and female body and multiracial and multiethnic background mean that you will experience sexism and racism and at times you will feel defeated. In those moments I want to remind you of this one. Today young people like you, of all colors and creeds, joined their moms and grandmas and great grandmas to send a message to the world and the new administration. Today we showed with our collective power our resolve to be heard. We told the new president and his supporters that we will challenge policies and practices that harm those already at society’s margins. We said that in the face of pervasive incitement of fear, we are not afraid.

Love,

Mom

Tag: womxnsmarch

we are immigrants

why we marched