Mad Mike's America
We are Warriors: Apathetic No Longer
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.
