This is What Democracy Looks Like.

TEAM Ford had a really wonderful, inspiring morning. If you read this blog, you know that Tim and I are total hippie liberal borderline socialists, and so we are not real excited about having a rapey, racist commander in chief. We decided that we wanted to go as a family to the Orange County Women's March on Washington, because in a post-election world, one of the ways we feel like we can have a large impact is by raising our children to be decent human beings who care about others. We wanted them to see that sometimes you take to your feet for things you believe in, in addition to using your words, or sending your money to go where your mouth is via supporting nonprofits.

So, this morning we got ourselves locked and loaded, picked up some donuts and were on our way to Santa Ana. We got to the corner by the old courthouse just as the march began, and I stood there holding Ellie's hands and crying openly. It was so beautiful to see so many people coming together to show that Love Trumps Hate. It was wonderful so many women (and men too) vocally angry about the injustices that women, and people of color, and people who identify as LGBT or have disabilities suffer on the regular. People asking to be seen and asking to be heard. The organizers had said there were 10,000 registered marchers, but the police have since reported that it was closer to 20,000. Don and Eileen had been marching in the middle of the crowd, and it actually took them a solid twenty minutes to make it to where we'd been waiting.

It was amazingly heartening to be in the midst of it all with my little girl. She made a sign that said "we love you" and drew Obama, and when I asked her if she remembered why we were marching, she said "because we want to show everyone that we love them, and we want to teach Donald Trump to be kind."

It was also amazing to hear her chanting "this is what democracy looks like!" because it is. She has parents who proudly voted and talked to her about it, and today she learned what it's like to exercise your freedom of speech and your freedom to peaceably assemble (apparently, there were nearly three million people marching across the world, and in the US there were only a handful of arrests. Way to get in formation, ladies.) She got to stand up for kindness, and march toward progress (the little one mostly rode in the stroller and ate snacks. But he proudly dances to Who Run the World (Girls!) so he's also well on his way.) It was an inspiring day, and a wonderful way to spend the morning as a family. Takes everyone to smash the patriarchy!