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ABE WON’T BE SILENT - There will never be a day like the Women’s March on January 17, 2017. Living in Los Angeles, I had only heard of our subway system and was damned if I would ever step foot on it. I drive; therefore, I am.
Being a refugee from New York City, I had more than my fair share of riding in cars with boys, girls, panhandlers, smelly homeless people, and actors that I bet were pretending to be homeless people panhandling.
On the first day of the depressingly upsetting Trump White House, the world was going to attend the Women’s March.
Every city in America was organizing a Women’s March, and people were waking up to the fact that we had lost our country to a gross baboon and his criminal enterprise, AKA his family.
Some say this awakening led to the phrase that I despise, ‘woke,’ which has become the political football we are forced to play now that our democracy is on tenterhooks.
I’m in there somewhere… verklempt.
With one million Never-Trumpers rumored to converge in Downtown LA, the subway was the suggested means to get there. Dreading the experience, it was unexpectedly overwhelmingly emotional, but in the best way possible. Talk about a sense of community. People of all stripes and colors…total strangers, were hugging and crying and sharing stories of their newly minted depression since Hillary Clinton’s loss. I was in awe of the energy and was glad not to be wearing a pink pussy hat, but in hindsight, it was my “date that will live in infamy.”
My life changed as a result of that day forever. It reawakened my activist best self, the boy who boycotted 7th-grade classes in solidarity with the college students in 1970 for the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. Then that boy became a man and marched for Gay Rights in the ‘70s and again for AIDS funding in the ’80s because—Silence = Death. That day at the Women’s March, I remembered who I was and will be long as I live. If you follow me on TikTok, you know how committed I am to keeping our democracy alive and plan to defy fascism. We ALL must recommit to our best selves, prepare to get to the streets again, and rally for our future. This is a clarion call to all groups for social justice. We can’t and won't be silent!
Below is a picture of my mom, one of, if not the greatest woman I have ever met, who I am honoring to celebrate Women’s History Month. A Holocaust survivor, who was hilarious, which is hard to fathom how one manages that; she came from the depths of despair to create a life many wish they could accomplish.
Please click this image to watch the TikTok post I did in her honor.
Honoring my Mom on this first day of Women’s History Month.
Eme, and tell me about who you are honoring today.
Peace…
Abe - Won’t Be Silent (https://linktr.ee/WontBeSilent)
(ABE GURKO is the executive producer of a documentary “Won’t Be Silent,” about the extraordinary Women of Protest Music. He's an Opinionator who hosts a podcast, "Conversations From the Edge of Democracy," that discusses the current state of our fragile political landscape. Abe is a contributor to CityWatchLA.com. [email protected])
YouTube.com/WontBeSilent
Instagram @AbeGurko
TikTok.com/@WontBeSilent
WontBeSilent.com
TikTok.com/@WontBeSilent
