This is what Democracy Looks Like!

Before this class I could have never pictured myself marching in protest for climate change.  Yes, as a child I protested on behalf of Israel and as a teenager I lobbied for gun control on Capital Hill, but I was never passionate about climate change before now.  Besides I could never see myself marching next to people holding “Death to Capitalism” signs (which were ever present in the Climate March regardless of their relevancy).  If someone told me that would happen, that I would become that sort of person, I would have told them that they were nuts.  But yesterday it did happen.

Before the March, as the Macaulay group waited for everyone to congregate, a women in jogging attire said something as she passed by.  “Hippies go home!  Bother someone else!” she chanted loudly.  It seemed to be in a laughing matter but you could tell there was truth to it.  I have had some trouble getting this out of my mind.  I realized I had the same attitude towards events such as the Climate March before I myself was a participant.   Yelling radicals holding up traffic was something I looked down upon.  In my mind, these people were inconsiderate hippies holding up people’s lives (in the form of extreme traffic) just to get their nonsensical point across.  I no longer feel this way.  During the Climate March, people of all ages and backgrounds congregated to fight for the state of our planet, to force the government to make some sort of legislation on behalf of our right to a healthy planet.  The Climate Marchers were fighting for Earth in its entirety.  I realized that it was worth dealing with traffic so as that the government would listen to what the people called for.  The Climate March was a necessary course of action, an exhibition of democracy within this nation.

And as we chanted:

“Tell me what democracy looks like!”

“This is what democracy looks like!”