A Family March: I marched for my son.

Catie Fyfe
Amy Poehler's Smart Girls
3 min readJan 21, 2017

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On Friday I dropped my son off at school and then drove 2 hours west to pick up my mom and sister at a park and ride off the Mass pike. Then we drove another 2 hours to get my mother in law in CT followed by a quick stop to pick up my sister in law in NYC. My Subaru has become, for the weekend, a magic school bus of sorts — driving members of my inter-generational feminist family across New England to the March in DC. We had really good snacks, stories and I made hats!

After 13 hours we finally pulled into DC. It was a long drive but every rest stop along the bumper to bumper jersey pike was filled with women in pink hats!

I’d never been to a protest march before, and I was excited and a bit nervous. Were you there too, how did it feel? Did you go with friends and family too?

Our little group managed to stay together the whole time and while we couldn’t see the speakers at the rally, we had fun chatting with fellow marchers around us and pointing out our favorite protest signs. There was an insane amount of people there, but I was so impressed with how polite and nice everyone was. We saw nothing but kindness all day. I met some really cool kids who were also at their first march and two women next to us who had driven overnight all the way from Michigan!

Leading up to the March I read stories about why people were marching and was so inspired. I took some time to reflect about why I was going to DC and we talked about it on the car ride down.

Here is why I marched today:

  • I marched for my son. I will raise a boy into a man who uses his love, talent and privilege to bring more, not less, kindness into the world.
  • I marched for my ocean and my planet. It’s the only one we have. Climate change is real and it is here. I believe in science.
  • And finally, I march because I have the privilege to do so, while others may not. I marched for myself but also for those that could not.

Here is what my family had to say:

  • I am marching to find a positive outlet for my fury and disgust.
  • I am marching for my children and my children’s children.
  • I’m marching because I don’t want to see fifty plus years of progress go to waste in a matter of months. I sincerely hope to carry forward the hard work of the women who came before me and I’m heartsick that this progress is now in jeopardy.

Thank you all who marched today, all around the world. You raised your voice and now the work begins. As Gloria Steinem said, “let’s talk about what we will do tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow.”

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