Woman's March

I went to the Woman's March in my area.  I had a couple friends who were interested but then couldn't go, and then Chuck decided to go with me (he didn't want me to go alone) but then that day he got sick, so after work I headed off to the train station with my sign and my winter gear all alone.   And it was cold! Wind, snow, and sleet.   As the train got closer and closer to the city it began to fill with pink hatted women with their signs. It was a very festive atmosphere.  I got there just as the march started.  There were so many people, I would guess around ten thousand.  We filled the entire street for half a mile. I was lucky enough to get into the capitol for the rally.  A lot of different issues were talked about, and while I didn't agree with everything, I did agree with many views that were expressed.

I hesitated sharing my experience on social media because my community is very conservative. From my community, I saw only anti-march posts. But ultimately, I decided to share my experience, to take a public stand.  For me, marching was my way to show my anger at Trumps hate rhetoric and sexism, and my support for all different kinds of people. I also feel that women are underrepresented in government and in all layers of our culture here.  Ironically, the same women that were on social media on Monday saying that "the march didn't represent them," today are posting how upset they are about Trump's immigration ban - a big thing that we were marching against.



City Youth Council

Later in the week, Ruth was back at the capitol for a day with the City Youth Council.  In addition to touring and talking to several of our representatives and congresspeople, Ruth was also selected to chair a discussion about drug testing in high schools.  They had a nice lunch where Ruth ended up sitting at a round table with our Mayor and a few city council people. She said it was super fancy

Ruth's Sweep

This weekend was one of Ruth's larger debate tournaments at a local university.  I went on Friday to judge.  While judging takes a lot of time (an entire day), I always enjoy it.  These kids are just amazing.  They can talk eloquently about subjects that most adults would struggle with. But at the same time they are just teenagers, often loud, usually silly, sometimes obnoxious.

Ruth felt pretty confident throughout the tournament and ended up winning every one of her five rounds.   Her team got third overall, which is amazing because they are not a large team.