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Sparkle (5)
When Jon Stewart made the announcement about his march back in September, Josh and I decided to go down, even though we're not really marchers. In fact, the last march I can remember us going to was the Million Mom March back in May of 2000. When you live in D.C., marches are a dime a dozen.
Why this march and not the other 3 billion marches that have happened in the 10 years since our last march? Not to mention the 3 billion counter-marches that usually go on daily as well. Can't have a march here without a counter-march.
I'm not really sure. It isn't the celebrity factor since celebrities bring their causes to our city on a daily basis. It isn't that our politics are aligned because frankly, I don't do political rallies even when I agree on every issue.
So it must be the message.
Because while I don't believe strongly in a lot of things, I do believe in reasonableness, and the fact that we certainly need more of it. A case in point, a few weeks ago, I wrote a series of posts on my blog and one on BlogHer that said that while I would have loved to have breastfed the twins, I wasn't medically able because my body produces no prolactin, and while I think breastfeeding is groovy just as I think formula feeding is groovy, what I think does a great deal of damage on a quest to raise breastfeeding rates (which are already at a pretty reasonable 73.9% in terms of trying breastfeeding) is supremacy language.
And while the majority of people responded with a reasonable, "huh, I feel that way too" or a reasonable, "well, I think breast is best campaign rocks, but you're entitled to your opinion and I can respect it," there were also the people who screeched, "Melissa is anti-breastfeeding!"
And the point is that if people can jump from the idea of "the wording of a campaign pisses me off" to Melissa just gave people the idea that breastfeeding is worthless and that she doesn't support the hard work of breastfeeding ... well ... then we need this rally. Because we seem to have forgotten that being pro-something doesn't make you anti-something else.
And because people are on a hair trigger. People don't even read blog posts anymore. They just skim to see if the person is in agreement with their ideology, and if they're not, they unleash their displeasure on them. Twitter is no longer the fun place to discover what someone is considering eating for lunch. Now I need to wade through people writing inflammatory statements just to upset others. And equally annoying, 30 calls to action a day for people's personal problems with a company, organization, or other person. Shit happens, and now, instead of dealing with it on our own, we instantaneously call forth an angry mob and call that social action. We're no longer responding directly to words and ideas and leaving people out of it -- we're skipping their ideas and verbally attacking human beings.
And I'm sure this post will get a few nasty comments too amid all the reasonable ones saying, "yes, I agree that we don't all need to espouse the same philosophy in order to respect one another." Because I think the vast majority of us agree that the people we surround ourselves with don't need to be replicas of ourselves. That a nice Jewish socialist girl like me can be good friends with a nice Christian New Age Libertarian. And I don't love her despite those characteristics -- I love her because of those characteristics.
I think it speaks volumes that President Obama will be on The Daily Show tonight. That support for reasonableness is coming from the top, and hopefully other politicians will follow suit.
I'm well aware that there are a lot of reasonable people out there who fit Jon Stewart's description of the perfect people for this rally: those "who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles." And I'm sorry if you're that person yet you don't live close to D.C. or can't
