Taken in Washington D.C.

One in six American women will be the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Said another way, that’s a little over twenty-six million women alive today. But the revolution is here, and it’s going to be championed by our daughters.

I was in D.C. From what I can tell from Twitter, Instagram, and articles, families brought their daughters out in droves all over the world. The American family is supposed to be the cornerstone of our social fabric, right? How can Trump reject families that march against him? How can he or the Supreme Court or Congress see a family marching together and dismiss their principles? Trump may kick them out of his rallies (remember the crying baby?), but the nuclear family remains the most important support structure in our society.

And the daughters that participated in yesterday’s march will be our leaders. In listening to Linda Sarsour, a contributor to Melville House’s What We Do Now, I learned that it’s best to let the most oppressed among us lead. And the most oppressed population I know of in America, and the world, is women.

On Saturday, we empowered our daughters with a model for action. We showed them that we’d stand up with them, and that the largest march in American history was for and by women. I intend to follow their lead.

Kahlil Gibran wrote about children in The Prophet:

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

I strive to be like the next generation and the generation after that. A generation that tramples rape culture. A generation that knows equality is shown on a paycheck too. A generation that knows millions of people will have their backs when they’re victimized.

A generation that lives in a place of tomorrow, without fear of speaking their minds.

A generation that marches.