Women's March 2017

Do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001?

I do. I remember being asleep in bed, when my husband woke me and told me the Twin Towers had been attacked. It was an unreal moment. Even watching it on television didn’t make it any more real for me. Being Australian, the Twin Towers to me was a staple of my favourite shows like Friends, Seinfeld and the place where Snake Plissken landed his ‘gulf-flyer’ in Escape from New York. It was part of the landscape that was uniquely New York.

I think it was also the moment Generation X finally took notice of what was happening in the world around them.

Since that day, we’ve watched the world descend into extremism. Generation X often found itself residing in the comfortable middle ground between hard left and right politics. We cared about what was going on but trusted there was a centre keeping things from leaning too much in one direction. But as Yeats said it so eloquently,

‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’

The war against terrorism did nothing to stop it. Afghanistan is no more liberated now than it was in 2001. Saddam Hussein is gone but Iraq is in shambles and the entire region is a mess, destabilised because we went after non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism existed prior to September 11 but at no point did holiday planning include a calculation of the risk level for a terror attack. Even worse, it is perfectly reasonable to consider whether or not you should attend a public event for fear of a mass shooting.

Before 2001, the idea that Great Britain - the nation responsible for the Commonwealth - would vote for isolationism, or that Europe would be cultivating a rise in right-wing parties after the fall of USSR, was laughable. Closer to home, One Nation and Pauline Hanson has risen like Lazarus. Even more horrific, the election of a millionaire turned game show host to the presidency seemed like something out of a Paul Verhoeven film. Outlandish.

And yet here we are.

Generation X, we’re a cynical, apathetic bunch. We grew up on Spielberg, MTV and Stallone and are more materialistic than any generation before us. We don’t have much respect for authority and even less faith in our country and its leaders. That needs to change, like RIGHT NOW.

If you’re happy with the way the world is, then keep on whining about how everything sucks but and continue to do nothing about it.

I’m tired of outraged people who are offended by things that have nothing to do with them. If a woman wants to wear a headscarf, that’s her business unless she tries to make you wear one. If you’re a Christian and believe abstinence is a realistic form of birth control - fine, but keep your beliefs about contraception and abortion to yourself. Unless LGBT persons have taken to attacking straight people in public bathrooms, there’s no reason why we can’t share them. If an immigrant will wash toilets for minimum wage because you don’t need to (being on the dole and all) shut the hell up. And gay people should be allowed to get married - why shouldn’t they suffer like the rest of us?

Finally, I’m sick of intolerance, not just for minority groups but also for our home-grown traditions. There should be nothing wrong with saying Merry Christmas or being proud to be Australian. Values dear to our hearts should never be sacrificed for the sake of political correctness. Tolerance and pride doesn’t just extend to the minorities but to the countries that host them.

On January 21st 2017, I’m joining the Women’s March with women (and men) across the globe to show the world we stand together and reject intolerance in all its forms. There are marches planned in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Auckland to name a few. So far 400 marches are being planned worldwide.

Join us.