Why I Marched
I should preface this by saying that I hate crowds, and will do most anything to avoid them. So you can imagine that I surprised myself when I ended up in a crowd of half a million people a few weeks ago at The Women’s March in New York.
Why did I decide to march? Beyond caring deeply about women’s issues, particularly those the march defended, the media coverage leading up to the election, during the election, and the “alternative facts” after the election shaped my decision to participate.
If we rewind to Election Day, many of us were shocked by the outcome, and at how there could be such a discrepancy between the polling data and the voting results. This left me, and many I know, feeling disoriented, out of touch and discouraged by the media, which we rely on to inform our reality.
Then, in recent weeks, we were faced with the emergence of “alternative facts” which further challenged the way we think about news and how to wade through multiple stories and competing interests to reach some semblance of the truth.
Part of why I love being a communicator is that we are tasked with boiling down a plethora of facts to their core, distilling a clear message, and projecting that story to reach a wider audience. The rise of these “alternative facts,” however, have put to question the information that is relayed to the public, making the job of communicators all the more important at this time.
I marched because I was excited to be a part of a clear message - a hard fact that no one could deny with alternative facts. People held thousands of different signs with different words, but the message was clear and unified: we need to safeguard women’s rights under the new administration that threatens so many of them.
I look forward to continuing to strive toward opportunities like the Women’s March that provide clarity and undeniable truth. 