Women vs. Women...what's your perspective

So it seems to me, there are a couple things going on with all this uproar between women ABOUT the women’s march.  In my opinion, I think it boils down to some fundamental humanisms; judging others, as well as not being able to see the situation from the perspective of another’s eyes.  In the past week I have shared conversations through social media, with family and other women who are just honestly asking the questions of “why did you march” and get beat up over even asking the question, I have shared with others why I would have chosen to march, and I have seen some of the downright rude posts and comments others get when sharing their thoughts.  I hope you keep sharing anyway, it is the discussion that will move us all forward.  I have two perspectives I want to share and how what my reaction has been to them.

First the perspective of the woman who just doesn’t understand, who believes she is a powerful woman and she controls her destiny and we are privileged to live in this country, so stop complaining (it is deeper than that but am giving a summary, see post here)  http://www.allenbwest.com/michele/powerful-open-letter-womens-march-participants-goes-viral .   

  As I read her post and automatically assume (judge) that she is a pretty, skinny little white gal, and maybe she has been lucky enough to never had deal with some of the issues some of the women who marched for equal treatment have.  I read her shared thoughts and all I can see is arrogance of one who has not fought for many of those rights she lists off there.  If it weren’t for women protesting in our country’s history, she would NOT be able to vote!  Even if I didn’t necessarily agree with ALL the voices that came from the large televised events, I can certainly see myself in many of the marching orders of the women gathered there, carrying their signs in protest.  I am trying to see it from another’s eyes and respect their right to protest without JUDGING them, unlike the author of the above post, holding herself up as superior to the women she is bashing by expressing how she thinks THEY should try to impress HER?  I sincerely hope the woman that wrote those words has the action to back it up, maybe she could share about her experiences traveling globally and working with the local community to address the horrific conditions she just railed on about.  Otherwise, she has no integrity to ask such a thing of the women she claims to not understand.

Then there is the perspective of this woman, of a mother who has lost a child.

Alexis Ritter

11 hrs · 

A few people have asked me "why the outrage" about the Womens' March? It was a good thing right?" Well, yeah...from your perspective, I'm sure it was an awesome thing and it got a lot of great press and hopefully it's stirred some folks to move from the sidelines into the frey but here's what I felt:

When I stood at the top of the hill near the main post office and looked down on the amazing number of women that came out on Saturday, I was overwhelmed. At first it was a good feeling; a great feeling even! And then a nice white lady gave me a thumbs up for carrying our "All LGB, Queer, Trans Black Lives Matter" sign and I thought, "would Tamir Rice be dead if this many women came out to march for Trayvon Martin? Would their killers (and so many others) still be walking these streets if this many women came out to support his life and protest his death?" And I cried. I cried because for so long we've been asking for this type of support but our lives weren't important enough. Our children weren't worthy of it. They were called thugs and we were told to wait. And now...now your way of life feels threatened and you want all of the people to come rushing to help and goddammit, they did. They did it for you but wouldn't do it for me. They did it for your uterus but not for a black child. And that shit hurts. It hurts like a mutherfucker

  Another story of a wife who lost her husband, shot dead alongside the road over a traffic stop gone wrong, a perspective, that seen through my eyes as a chubby, middle aged white gal, cannot truly ever comprehend the depths of pain that SHE has seen.  I have never had to worry about the safety of my loved ones in the way these women have had to.  In her words, I hear brokenness and despair, betrayal as she looks out all the proud women marching to protect their rights, yet wonders why these same women couldn’t see her perspective.  So many women marching to protect this ‘right’ of motherhood, yet not standing with the women who are only trying to protect those they love whose lives are being cut short.  I don’t know this woman, Katherine Ann, whose posts I follow, drawn to her simple yet so profound thoughts, these words she wrote the other night have been haunting me since.

Katherine Ann

January 21 at 6:10pm · 

Two women pleading for justice...
sometimes even with the same message
but
different body shape
different cadence,
different resonance.

One is labeled persuasive, inspired, even passionate.
The other labeled angry, demanding, even violent.

Over and over and over and over again
I see two women
and race makes all the difference
in the way the story gets told.

Pass me by with the tone policing and the "no riot" gloat.
We don't get to tell each other how to get free.

It is hard work, to go against that first thought we want to have, to judge someone or something when we don’t agree with their choices or actions.  It is even harder to try and see the situation through the eyes of another, to not view them as the “other”.  But I know that I am going to keep trying, with my words AND my actions.