“Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well, it’s you girl, and you should know it. With each glance and every little movement you show it.”
I find it profound that the world lost the irreplaceable Mary Tyler Moore, a proud self-proclaimed feminist, only a few days after millions of women marched. I know that 80-year-old sparkler who turned the world on with her smile marched alongside the women and their allies in Washington D.C., Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Denver and Los Angeles, if only in her heart.
Women marched all over the world in places such as England, Australia and even in remote Antarctica. I marched in Alamosa, Colorado, for my mother and her mother before her. I held my sign up high for my great-grandmother who only had the right to vote because of women who marched in her time. I marched alongside women aged one to ninety-one, all with a light in their eyes that cannot be dimmed by oppression, inequality or even the freezing snow. One women with silver in her hair, perhaps someone’s grandmother, held a sign made from recycled cardboard that said, “I can’t believe I am here again.”
I am sure she lived through many moments when women pushed against the glass ceiling of equal pay for equal work, when women of color fought to sit in the front of the bus and lesbians and transgendered women began to win new rights, only because they marched. A mother clutched her tiny daughter, wrapped in a bright pink onesie, and held a sign high over her head that said, “Girls Just Want to Have FUNdamental Human Rights.” I saw a pug wearing a sweater that proclaimed, “My Body, My Choice” and a little girl with a handmade sign that simply said, “I am only six years old and I know everyone is equal.”
Maybe we should send her to Washington.
It was a powerful day for grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters, and the ones who love them. We all marched in solidarity. We all marched for the hope of a future when our children’s children don’t have to march for justice, but instead do so in celebration. It was a moment that will play on in my heart for a lifetime when I marched alongside women who held hands singing in the snow.
Even if you didn’t march, and even if you didn’t feel like the march was for you, I hope you know that hearts were bursting with pride, overflowing with love, and who could ask for anything more?
Our Mary Tyler Moore said it best: “Love is all around, no need to waste it. You’re gonna make it after all.” May she rest in peace. May we work for peace.
Email reaches former Columbus resident David Creel at [email protected].
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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