Fight for your rights!

On By EstherIn In the news, Richard Armitage

I wasn’t able to make it to a march yesterday but I have been looking at reports about the protests with a great sense of joy and hope. Let me join in the protest here online and share some of the most awesome signs I saw on my Twitter and Instagram timelines…

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Pete Souza, White House photographer, posted this understated message and I have to agree with him..

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And to round it all off, apparently my favourite actor Richard Armitage marched in New York as well yesterday. I am so happy about that!

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These protests give me hope, also for my own country, where there were solidarity marches for the US (and for women’s and human rights) in Amsterdam and Den Haag.

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – JANUARY 21: Demonstrators make their way from the iamsterdam statue in front of the Rijksmuseum towards US Consulate during the Women’s March held at Museumplein on January 21, 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Women’s March originated in Washington DC but soon spread to be a global march calling on all concerned citizens to stand up for equality, diversity and inclusion and for women’s rights to be recognised around the world as human rights. Global marches are now being held, on the same day, across seven continents. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

The populist right is also popular here. It’s ironic how several European populist leaders, including our Dutch one Geert Wilders, have recently met each other in Koblenz; European cooperation between populists who are anti-Europe? Interesting… Anyhow, just protesting is nice but it needs to be followed by actions as well and for us here in the Netherlands that also means: go and vote in March!

Oh man, I wish I could stop posting about politics but somehow this feels like the most defining time in history in my lifetime. My core values and democracy and human rights are under threat and I find I just can’t stop myself from writing about some of this stuff…

23 thoughts on “Fight for your rights!”

  1. Please don’t stop posting about politics! Posting politics is like being on a march, so there! Yesterday’s political events were really positive and encouraging, in any case. It felt so good to be on that march – and it felt even better when I went online and saw that millions of women had been on these marches, all over the world.

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  2. Servetus

    I hear you about feeling the compulsion to write about politics. So discouraging about the Right. It’s like they forgot the entire twentieth century happened.

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    2. You have no idea how much the phrase “America First!” terrifies me. Sounds to me like “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles” (Germany, Germany above everything) that the Nazis liked to use.
      American patriotism and inflated self-image has been scary to me for a long time now and I see it in Republican as well as Democrat rhetoriic (yes, I even cringe when my fave president ever, Obama, goes on about America being the greatest country in the world). It always always reminds me of extremist regimes and where that has lead in the 20th century…

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      1. Servetus

        I’m sure you’ve read about this by now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee

        Not exactly the brightest moment of US history. What frustrated me on Friday was that he insisted all summer that was an accident, he wasn’t aware of that context. But it shows up again on Friday, which means he’s just decided to ignore it. However, the Wall Street Journal uncovered yesterday that the speech was co-written, in part by Steve Bannon, the white supremacist.

        re: the rhetoric of American supremacy — yeah, it sounds a lot different o/s the US than it does inside. I suspect most Americans think that people in the rest of the world also think their countries are the greatest countries, i.e., that the level of casual patriotism that is normal here would be standard in other parts of the world.

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        1. Our casual patriotism is very diffent to what I perceive casual patriotism to be in the US.

          Here, for instance, if people burned Dutch flags there’d be some upheaval maybe but mostly I think people would shrug and say, “if that’s how they want to protest then let them protest”. Here swearing allegiance to the flag in school every morning is unheard of and would be viewed very suspiciously. We only see Dutch flags on display here on national holidays like the King’s Birthday or Liberation Day (celebrating liberation from the Nazis at the end of WWII) and when kids graduate the parents hang out their flag for a few days in celebration along with the child’s schoolbag on the same pole. No one ever ever says “God bless The Netherlands” like I hear “God bless America” and no one (except for extremists like Geert Wilders) would ever say “The Netherlands is the greatest nation earth”. There is a real sense of national pride that shines through here during those national holidays I mentioned or during international sports matches when the country becomes orange (our national colour), but other than that there isn’t much outward display of national pride (even though it may be felt).

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  3. squirrel.0072

    Nous vivons actuellement avec un discours ambiant très pessimiste, sur la situation actuelle de l’occident. Une des seules réponses, qui transperce le brouhaha, est le discours protectionniste, antimondialisation. Ce discours populiste, est accessible aux personnes en détresse, car il énonce des vérités simples et des réponses simples, comme celle du bouc émissaire.
    Aussi, que des personnes, comme vous, expriment une pensée profonde différente, cela redonne une visibilité à d’autres alternatives humanistes. Ce n’est pas de l’activisme, mais un cri du coeur libérateur.
    Il est vrai que pour se rassurer, les personnes lisent les discours des personnes qui ont la même opinion, la même sensibilité qu’eux mêmes. Mais tant que l’expression dans nos “démocratie” est libre, il faut en user, quel qu’en soit le résultat escompté et réel à la fin.

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    1. Thanks, Squirrel! You are right that we tend to read those speeches we agree with. I tend to read the more liberal ones, but to inform myself I will also read things I am opposed to and then get angry. I then realize that not only do liberal speeches strengthen my own resolve but if I write in support of (or speak of) liberal causes myself then maybe I can help strengthen other people as well. Or not. In any case, it makes me feel better to follow my liberal heart and I hope I will always be able to have the freedom to do this! So yes, I think I will always spout these ‘liberal ideas’ and spread the idea that I believe in human rights and multi-culturalism. 🙂

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  5. Hi Esther, Thanks for putting together a great collection of images about the Women’s Marches around the world! The fact that so many women–and men–came together in solidarity is heartwarming, hopeful, and life affirming! Hugs & Love! Grati ;->

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  6. EIne tolle Aktion, beeindruckend dass so viele Leute gegen seine Politik auf die Straße gehen, das macht Hoffnung!Und danke für die vielen schönen Bilder von der Aktion! Viele hatte ich noch nicht gesehen. ❤

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  9. Pingback: Richard and Colin in action | The Book of Esther

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