The Women's March on Washington went beyond noticed and served as proof that as a community we can create change. Since then, multiple marches have taken place. January 29, there was a peaceful rally in Copley Square, Boston, to protest against the immigration order. Lawyers went above and beyond to lift the recently placed ban on allowing immigrants, refugees, etc. into the country. Coming up in May, there are plans for a march defending the sciences and raising awareness for climate change. People everywhere are starting to stand up for their rights, but we can do more. We can be better.

We need real change and real change isn't going to happen overnight. It's going to take a lot more than marches, too. We need more protests, peaceful rallies, signatures, etc. We need to keep raising awareness for these causes and gain support wherever we can find it. We need to unite together and become a community including people of all backgrounds, faiths, gender identities, what have you. We need to create the change we want to see. We need to keep putting in more effort. More importantly, we need to continue to stay strong and resist giving up.

Political change happens because people force it to happen. Political leaders are nothing without the people backing them up and supporting their decisions. If we want them to stop doing what they are doing, we need to stop positively reinforcing them. Behaviorist B. F. Skinner derived the reinforcement theory. This theory generally states that people do their behaviors based on a positive and negative reinforcement system. When a person receives positive reinforcement for their actions, like receiving a cookie for getting an A, they become wired to continue those actions in order to obtain those rewards. When a person receives negative reinforcement, like a mother nagging a son to do the dishes, this makes the person stop doing their certain behavior in order to reduce whatever is positively reinforcing them. This is how we create change.

We exercise positive and negative reinforcement for what we want to see. If we want refugees to be able to feel safe and know they are welcomed, we support organizations that support them. For example, the transportation company Lyft, sent out an email stating that they "stand firmly against [Trump's actions of closing country borders to unwelcome refugees, immigrants, etc.], and will not be silent on issues that threaten the values of our community." I, for one, will be choosing to ride with Lyft over competing companies such as über.

Change takes time and it certainly will take a lot of effort, but it isn't impossible. Communities stand stronger together than apart. We can do this.