Trump protests are taking the world by storm. All across the globe from Europe to Japan to right here in the U.S., protesters are marching, sitting in, and doing everything in their power to make their voices heard. The system elected a president that the people didn't vote for, and people are pissed. When a candidate the majority didn't vote for takes the presidency, I'm not sure what people expect to happen. Silence? Acceptance?
Well, we're here to tell you that we will not stand for any of it. Because this is what democracy looks like.
Barely 24 hours into this presidency the people had already united to stand together for their rights, and they have not stopped. The Women's March is the largest protest to occur against a president in all of history. There are currently 673 marches around the globe with over 4.75 million participants in all seven continents.
If you are angered or even outraged by these protests, then I ask you to take a moment and think about why people are marching. (I also congratulate you on your privilege to be able to be ignorant on these issues.)
Yes, the president is chosen, and yes we cannot change that. But it's important that we make ourselves heard. If we chose silence or acceptance, if we chose to not fight back, if we chose to idly watch as our rights are stripped away from us, then this wouldn't be a democracy.
If you still don't understand what or who we're marching for I'll make you a short list: women's rights, LGBT+ rights, black lives matter, Planned Parenthood, education, health care, climate change, immigrant's rights, people of color, the arts, disabled people, and refugees. Trump has promised and already taken steps towards endangering the people and the causes mentioned above. He is defunding Planned Parenthood and the National Endowment for the Arts along with the National Endowment for the Humanities. He had already removed anything related to LQBT rights, climate change, and civil rights on the White House website within the first 24 hours of his presidency.
If we cannot change our president, then we have to at least let him know that the power still lies with the people. Historically, marches have done wonders to grant us everything from the right to vote to civil rights reform. So for those of you under the impression that marches don't work, you're wrong.
Maybe in your lifetime, you've never had to fight for anything because the world was served to you on a silver platter. But most of us don't have that luxury. Now, more than ever, our rights, safety, and security are in danger, and this is what lets Mr. Trump know that.
So, by all means, you can sit still and bitterly talk of the marches happening around the world, but just know that your privilege has never been extended to the majority of those marching, and our president, by no means, intends on protecting the rights we've so desperately acquired over the years. In fact, he plans on slowly taking them away from us. And we will keep marching until the people in power listen.
