brushfire"This, yes, this, it was always like this." -Stanley Koehler
REFLECTIONS OF AN EMPTY NESTER
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A journalist, a scientist, an attorney and a teacher get on a train.
No, this is not the beginning of a joke. It's a true story of what will happen next Saturday when my husband, brother, daughter and I board the MARC train from Baltimore to Washington D.C. to attend the Women's March on Washington. I am the journalist. I am marching in solidarity with members of the press who have been maligned, labeled, humiliated and denigrated by the president-elect and his supporters. I am marching to protect freedom of speech and of the press. My husband is the scientist. He is marching in opposition to science deniers trying to subvert the truth for personal gain and a new administration bent on rolling back advances in climate change, clean energy and health care reform. My brother is the criminal defense attorney. He is marching in support of social justice and the right of all citizens to equal protection of the law. My 22-year-old daughter is a fifth-grade math and science teacher and a Teach for America corps member. She is marching for her Hispanic and Latino students from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. She is marching for her refugee students from countries in the Middle East and Africa. She is marching for all of her students' freedom, safety, and right to be accepted, legitimized, embraced and celebrated. We are marching for each other, for our families, for our fellow Americans, and for those who can't join us but are with us in spirit. We don't know what to expect when we get off that train and head to Independence Avenue and Third Street. We don't know what we will accomplish or whether it will change anything. But we do know we will not be alone; we will be part of something bigger than ourselves. We will be part of a moment in history. And when our grandchildren ask us years from now: "Where were you when..." we will be able to say, "We were there."
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Mary Anne BrushJournalist, fiction writer, wife and mother |