The southern Oregon’s women march was yesterday, January 21st, 2017.

I participated by being there and walking, trying to be supportive of women and others worried about their rights and freedom. Because, sorry, when I fought for freedom and equality, it included everyone. There were and are no buts, exceptions, exclusions, or doubts. Also, the Trump agenda seems to be releasing a chaos of hatred, bigotry and sexism, things that I endured in my youth, crap that we were moving past. I don’t want to move ‘back’ to anything; I want to keep moving forward as a world, taking everyone with us to a better existence for everyone. Call me idealistic or romantic, but I grew up on science fiction shows and literature in which we did find a better future. So blame popular culture for creating me.

Besides that, I worry about anyone who begins talking about ‘alternate facts’. As a writer, I call that fiction. It’s all right as fiction, but it doesn’t do anyone any good when it’s our government using ‘alternate facts’.

I was expecting about two thousand people at our Ashland march. I was off.

About eight thousand people, according to the Ashland police, participated in the march in Ashland, population about twenty grand. (Now I’m reading that the Ashland police estimated that it was fifteen thousand, and that traffic was backed up onto the Interstate with cars trying to get into town.) People came from other parts of southern Oregon and northern California to participate. I didn’t witness anything hateful, just determination about rights, equality and justice. Although the temperature nudged to just forty-eight F when the clouds parted enough for the sun, and it rained, the march had an exuberant, energetic, positive aura.

Some call it a protest, but I call it an assemblage and an exercising of civic rights, even civic duties. If we do not agree with the politics, practices and policies of our elected officials at any level, we should be determined and brave enough to voice our differences without resorting to violence or being fearful of retributions. Changes rarely begin at our highest echelons of society, government and finance. Those levels usually have the most to lose in a change of the status quo. Change typically begins with grass root movements as people raise their voices and state their concerns and insist on change.

So raise your voice, no matter where you reside on the spectrum, or who you believe to be right and wrong. Let’s debate these questions with the civility they deserve. As one citizen to another, as one human to another, I ask that you not be hateful about this, and that you don’t resort to violence and name-calling. I ask that you use facts, and not any alternatives. The United States and other democracies remain a great experiment. There will be setbacks, detours, and red herrings, but let’s keep moving it forward, and give other generations a chance to continue this great experiment.

Cheers