We are Warriors: Apathetic No Longer

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In February, my husband set up the video camera in our kitchen and I read from a script I wrote earlier that day. I was angry at the GOP for the attacks on women’s health care, our bodies, our privacy, our everything. I uploaded the video, titling it “We Are Warriors.” We went to bed.

In October of 2011, I tried to organize a protest in Anoka, Minnesota. This was to be a protest against the now defunct “No Homo Promo” legislation adopted by the schools in the district and to bring attention to what the public health department called a “suicide contagion area.” Other than my husband and my son, only one other person wanted to come. So, we canceled.

That’s what I thought would happen with the We Are Warriors video, and the We Are Woman march. My husband, son and myself would show up at Dulles, check into the Residence Inn in Herndon, eat dinner at the best restaurant in Northern Virginia, Jasmine Café, head to the Capitol the next morning, stand there with three signs for an hour, then go back home. The end. Once bitten, twice shy and all that.

I was wrong. See, I picked April 28th out of the air, literally. It was spring, the weather would be nice, spring break would almost be over, and since only 3 people were going, it didn’t matter what date I chose. I really thought that the apathy I had met head on regarding the teen suicides and homophobic bigotry in Anoka would repeat itself. We were actually kind of excited to go as a family to DC; my folks used to live in Northern Virginia, and we had not visited since 2009.

Then everything exploded. Facebook groups popped up, organizing state marches on capitols all over America. People wanted to help with the national march. It was shocking to me that one video made such an impact. We began receiving emails from people, expressing confusion about the state marches versus the national march. There was no way we would be able to have permits for a national march by April 28th. So, much to the excitement of most, and chagrin of a few, we changed the date of the national We Are Woman march to September.

Because navigating the bureaucracy and red tape that is the National Parks Service is slightly less complicated than mapping the galaxies, We Are Woman is not announcing a formal date. The group wants to have every duck in that permit row when we announce, publicly, the new date for the national march. We also want April 28th to be all about the state marches.

Each state march scheduled for April 28th has a Facebook page, under the banner Unite Against the War on Women. I encourage people to join a march in their state. It is exciting that people are willing and excited to step out from behind their keyboards and protest the new GOP war on women. My sincere hope is that people who are passionate about this cause will continue to be passionate about other causes like marriage equality, bullycide and encouraging people to vote and support candidates who will protect all Americans, not just a select few.

We’re all connected, and we’re all being bullied by the GOP. As adults, we can fight this with articles and protests and we understand that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can only hurt us if we let them. Kids don’t always grasp that nuance, and we are losing an alarming number of kids to bullycide. Which brings us back to the new GOP. This new and unimproved political party believes that if they push us around and call us names, we’ll back down. We can’t back down, not on women’s issues, not on marriage equality and not on bullycide.

I made a video in my kitchen, and according to the Huffington Post, it started a movement. I guess I need to make more videos. Mad Mike’s Videos for Change. That has a nice ring to it.

See you in September.

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About Post Author

Erin Nanasi

Erin Nanasi is an avid underwater basket weaver, with a penchant for satire and the odd wombat reference.
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11 years ago

[…] Erin Nanasi, Senior Columnist for the web magazine MadMikesAmerica, speaking passionately from her kitchen. Her video, “We Are Warriors”, which she and […]

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