Keefe: Why I’ll March

I’m nobody. Who are you?

I will march on Saturday, January 18 at the Orange County Women’s March because at a time when it seems as if the most powerful voices can shout down and shut down the millions of nobody’s voices, I want my body to be counted in the name of all that is just.

In the land of plenty, the land of brilliance, the land of so very many resources brimming with brains creative enough to figure out equitable solutions to most of our problems, why do we act as if it’s this or that instead of and?

I can eat and you can eat too.

I can sleep under a roof and you can too.

I can work for a living wage and your business can thrive.

I can be a woman, a mother, a grandmother and I can know that I will always be treated fairly, walk safely, raise our future generations with righteous optimism.

I want my body to count as a visible sign against fear, against hate, against injustice, against inequity, against violence, against inhumane treatment of our fellow humans.

I want this nobody be a one body in the streets to say to those who cannot stand with me because they are incarcerated, intimidated, working too long hours to feed children who might be home alone because there’s no one to affordably care for them, I want this body to say to that body and the dignity and dreams that live within it:

I stand with you. Here I am.

They say to discover your true heart look at where your feet stand.

On Saturday, January 18, 2020 my feet will stand on the streets of Santa Ana in the name of justice and liberty for all.

Catherine Keefe is a poet, essayist, and a member of the Orange County Human Relations Commission Anti-Hate Speakers Assembly. Catherine spent many years teaching writing at Chapman University and as a journalist for the Orange County Register. She works now as a story coach, helping families shape and document generational narratives.

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