It was always wonderful to hear my mother recount her earliest memory of standing on top of her grandmother’s dining room table in their small Minnesota farming community. She recalled being surrounded by neighboring women who had gathered together to support the women’s suffrage movement in advance of women winning the right to vote. At her grandmother’s cue, the 3-year-old Valerie shouted, “Let me vote” to the roaring approval of all who were there.

Years speed by, costumes change, issues advance, and here we are in the today’s world.

Women now have the right to vote, but nearly 100 years later we are still working on many of the same issues that existed in my mother’s, grandmother’s, and great grandmother’s lifetimes. Also, we have added problems that no one 100 years ago could have predicted or foreseen. It is 2018 and the economy remains unfairly slanted against women who are struggling to provide the basics for themselves and their families due to substandard wages and ever increasing costs, like housing, food and healthcare.

Women receive lower wages for performing the same work as our male coworkers, violence is perpetrated against women, and harassment is systemically ignored. #Me Too. Climate change denial by our elected leaders is causing disruption to our economy and is endangering our environment. While every American should have the ability to get top-line health care when we need it, we have found new ways to take healthcare out of reach for those who need it most.

Last year, my neighbor Ruth asked if I would go on a march with her through Ocean Shores in support of the National Women’s March.

So, one cold quiet January morning in Ocean Shores she and I and over one hundred and 50 people gathered together for a Rally and March for Women’s Rights and Human Rights. We were brought together because the rhetoric of the election laid bare the underlying attitudes and private battles that women have been vocally and silently fighting for their entire lives. The rally itself was organized around the Unity Principles outlined in the National Woman’s March. The march was comprised of friends, business owners, community leaders, and neighbors. When it came time to march, Ruth and I stood aside for a moment and watched in sheer amazement as the people walked by united by devotion to the causes of women marching in peaceful dignity to advance an individual and collective determination to live in an America that welcomes diversity, values justice, and embraces freedom. The beauty of that captured moment has given me hope and strength all year.

We are living in a defining time. The rights and freedoms accorded to every American are an integral part of who we are and how we move through the world. The oppressive discourse in these last couple of years has taken a significant toll on every American and has created a climate of distrust. When civil discourse is devolved, and policy is rigged against us,++ we can see for ourselves the consequences of economic injustice immediately reflected in homelessness, hunger, lack of affordable healthcare, and quality education. Just as something gets taken from the lives of those who are oppressed, something is also taken from those who hear or see a wrong and decide to turn their head. Either way, each individual will be affected and will need to be devoted to managing the pain of those memories.

We invite you to come to our rally and stand in support of human rights. When we stand together, united as citizens, the effects of oppression can begin to be healed and we can find a common language of sanity to determine a way forward.

We will be at this rally to stand for the promises we, as Americans, made to work toward racial justice, woman’s choice, gender justice, support of DACA recipients, immigrants and refugees. We also do not wish to go back on the promise of environmental heritage made to future generations as we watch our treasured National Monuments given over to oil and fracking companies.

Many at the rally will be there because they see scientists offering objective and verifiable measurements that tell us that fossil fuel consumption is putting our planet in danger. We want to see the best scientific conclusions immediately reflected in the policies and regulations that govern the use of our oceans, land, air, and water.

There is a growing realization that we need to support and cultivate women leaders who will stand for a more equitable world for women and our diverse families. In the wake of last year’s march, we formed Coastal Unity as a grassroots organization to respond to policy as opposed to politics and to be a presence of compassion and advocacy for our community. Coastal Unity is hosting this rally in tandem with Washington Women Move Mountains and our partner organizations who work to advance women’s rights and human rights. We hope you can join us on January 20th at the Ocean Shores Convention Center at 11 a.m.

— Shannon Vandenbush