What a difference two years can make. When the March for Women’s Lives happened in April 2004, it drew one million people from around the country and was the largest march on Washington ever. The media barely covered it. This week, I've seen extensive coverage of a demonstration in LA over the weekend that drew an estimated 500,000 protesters against punitive legislation on illegal immigration passed by the House. The media is covering protests in Detroit and other cities as well.
Is the media more responsive to progressive issues these days? That would be nice. While I agree that illegal immigration is a problem, I think the proposed law Congree is currently debating a stupid piece of shit that would accomplish nothing. (If you want to stop people from coming here illegally, you have to stop the assholes who provide jobs for them because they don’t want to pay people a fair wage. If people can’t get jobs, they won’t come. Not only would this actually work, but it would be a much cheaper solution than border patrols and all the rest of it that hurts the job seekers, not the powerful industries that break the law to offer the low paying jobs.) I find the demonstrations very inspiring, actually. People need to tell Republicans and Bush that they fucking suck.
Yet I can’t help but be cynical. Deep down in my heart, I am sure that if the March for Women’s Lives took place today, and 1 million people again showed up, we’d be ignored. Feminism and self-autonomy are just not cool these days. Man, it’s sad to be part of a movement that is declared “dead” by the media every few years.
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My neighbor's daughter took her daughter to the Women's March on Washington in 2005 (?). The only coverage I saw was taken with her camera.
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