Welcome, to YOUR nation’s capital.
It may not seem like it is still YOUR capital, but it is. No, misogynist billionaire can take it away from you…permanently. Let there be no mistake about it. Washington D.C. is YOUR nation’s capital. Every brick of every government building belongs to you women who have come here to be heard in one amazing voice.
I have watched your journeys on Facebook as you drove by car from Texas, as you took a train from Boston and as you flew in your private jet from Los Angeles, the City of Angels. Some of you took the Metro as I did and it wasn’t that vast of a journey. Yet, for all of us it has been a journey. And a journey begins with one step, it has a purpose and it has an end. So, this journey will tell its own personal story in almost a million different voices.
And what beautiful voices: the voices of America’s mothers, daughters, aunts, cousins and sisters will all experience what the male framers of the Constitution called the right of ‘freedom of speech‘ and ‘peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.‘ I believe that they would be proud to see how far that vision has been expanded to include their female ancestors and even the ancestors of some of the very slaves who worked their fields.
I also believe that they and their disenfranchised wives and slaves would be appalled to see how far democracy and the common decency of government has fallen in twelve score and one years since the Declaration of Independence. Words spoken by candidates for the highest position in these group of United States would never have been tolerated in even a basest of public house in Boston or New York of the 18th century. Yet, they were bantered about and in earshot of any impressionable child or unwed person. And spoken by the exact people who called upon those same names of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin or Washington to advance their fundamentalist arguments. A double insult to their memory.
I take a great deal of time and thought into the preparation and execution of every “View From The Hill.” This one has kept me up for several nights. It is more important than the others. I pick my visuals and my colors very carefully. They must express my words. I first thought of black, the feeling that pervades much of my hope for the next four years. But that was too nihilistic. Then blue, then pink, then a multi-color rainbow all came to mind. But this morning as the first faint glow of the morning sun dawned over Washington, I remember a picture that I had taken when I was doing some research at the Library of Congress. And that was the answer.
For those of you not familiar with Washington, the Library of Congress is right behind the U.S. Capitol. I was in the Rare Books Division and had taken a picture of the newly refurbished dome of the capitol. I had never seen it more beautiful and more majestic. It actually brought a tear down my right cheek it was so moving. The reason that this was the perfect picture for this story is because the swearing-in of the 45th President of The United States took place on Friday exactly behind that picture. So, you are seeing in my picture the opposite of what America saw as the President-Elect became The President. And that is a powerful symbol of my feeling about this tragic event in American history.
I also like this picture because on my desk at home is a small replica of the lady who looms over the refurbished dome of the Capitol. The Statue of Freedom:
How appropriate that in this year when a misogynistic narcissist arrested the reigns of government from a woman with nearly three million more votes should guard our freedom over a capitol filled with two houses of Republicans and a Republican White House. The irony can not go unnoticed that the very dome that supports this symbol of our freedom should have been refurbished yet, the country which she symbolically guards should be in such poor disrepair and disrespect for more than half of her citizenry. If a statue could weep, surely this one would have on Friday, January 20, 2017 at twelve noon.
But if we embue this statue with human traits then surely her heart must have almost burst with pride and joy upon witnessing nearly a million of her fellow sisters and daughters as they filled the streets of the nation’s capital. She was placed on the capitol in 1863. She was born and overlooked a nation torn apart in the Great Civil War between the North and the South. So, she is no stranger to struggle within this great nation. She beheld brother vs brother during the Civil War, now she counts time as progressives battle prejudice, ignorance, racism, religious persecution and misyogny on a national level and sadly by the very leaders of this nation. How her heart must ache for her beloved country.
Behold our symbol
She stood strong through the days of the first Civil War and she is still standing. She is made to weather the storms by day and the fearful uncertainty of the nights all alone. She has been unmoved for over 157 years as she faced the imposing monument of George Washington and gazed in wonder for the last 110 years on the beauty of a new symbol of the nation’s city, the delicate Cherry blossoms that bloom when life is renewed each spring. And today she bears witness to a new breed of ancestors: women who are as strong as she, women who are as brave as she, women who are as determined as she and women who are made of sterner stuff and will not be forged into something base and without merit.
This journey that began when you took that first step outside of your doorway, does not end here today. This is not even the middle of the journey. Nor is this close to the end of your journey. Let it be known through the individual voice of each woman that this is just the beginning of a struggle that will only end when the powers that seek to destroy that which has been built on love and sacrifice have met with a greater power. The power of a million women to influence a million more women and to continue until the end of this long journey is in sight. And then to join in a position of leadership as the majority of voters in this great nation so decreed last November.
Come start that journey with me today.
And that is my View from The Hill
View From The Hill 