Voltaire at the Women’s March

Writing here weekly about walking, I usually describe the deep satisfaction that comes from a good hike, or how even a challenging pilgrimage can heal body and soul.

But taking a walk can also be a form of political protest, better known as marching.  I was one of 60,000 walkers, or marchers, this past Saturday, in Oakland, for the Women’s March.

Actually, so many people filled the streets that our pace was more like a crawl than a march.  But move we did, slowly, to make our convictions known.  A moving movement.

Among all the bold and witty protest signs held high in our march from the park around the lake and to downtown was a hand-lettered poster that read “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities – Voltaire.”

I’d been smiling at all the signs with puns and jokes about nasty and pussy: “You can’t birth a nation without pussy” written on a pink Lady Liberty torch.  “Make American nasty again.”  “Our rights are not up for grabs.”  “No more pussy footing around.”

And we all were charmed by the kids holding up homemade signs, like “Toddlers 4 Sharing” and “Trains for Peace.” “My Mom is a Badass!  Show some respect!”  And “Girls just wanna have fun-damental rights.”

But Voltaire?  That was pretty classy. Sure, we were in the hip and well educated San Francisco Bay Area.  One would expect that among those 60,000 marchers at least one person had read the great French Enlightenment thinker’s essays on freedom and human rights. 

And what an apt quote for the day; I think all 60,000 of us agree that our new president spouts nothing but absurdities.  And that his policies, both domestic and international, will produce nothing but atrocities.

I happened to be marching with two teenagers who are high school exchange students, Erika from Ecuador and Emna from Tunisia.  They are spending a high school year in California and living with a friend of mine in the northern part of the state.  She couldn’t make the march, because she had an all-day meeting in Oakland.  She had put out a Facebook request for someone to show the girls around the Bay Area while she was in her meeting.  I replied that I was going to the march if they wanted to do that, and if it was OK with her.  She said it was great, that the girls had worked the polls during the election and were interested in seeing more of American democracy in action.

Like most teenaged girls, it was a little hard to get a conversation going with them.  Their English was pretty good and they both said they had watched a lot of American TV growing up.  They did ask me about the pink hats with cat ears that so many people were wearing, and when I said they were pussy hats, you know, like what Trump said….? they knew exactly what I meant.

Emna, the Tunisian, and I had discovered we both spoke French (thank you, French colonialism in North Africa.) Somehow it was easier talking with her in French.  So I said, “Look, a quote from Voltaire, know who that is?”  And she did. 

I wish I could say that we then had a long discussion about Voltaire and how daring and prescient he was in advocating for freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  We didn’t.  But as we walked we got into conversations with other marchers about what were our favorite protest signs.  And I said, “There was one by Voltaire, but I can’t quite remember the quote.”  And it was Emna who recalled both key words, absurd and atrocious.

I bet she finds a lot of America to be absurd and even atrocious.  I asked the girls if their parents knew they were taking part in a march that day, and Emna said her mother was a little worried, she had seen pictures of the violent protests at the inauguration the day before.  She had assured her mother she would be ok. 

But surely much of the world, maybe including their parents, sees the US as pretty absurd and atrocious for having elected Donald Trump as our president.  I can say he’s not my president or I am not going to believe his absurdities.  But we are all vulnerable to ideologues and all capable of atrocities.  It was good to walk with those girls and be reminded of how big is our world and how interconnected we all are.

After an hour of searching we finally met up with my daughter the high school civics teacher.  She carried a poster she had made that read on one side, “Read, understand and protect the Constitution,” and on the other, “14^th Amendment: Equal Protection Under the Law.”

I doubt Trump has ever heard of Voltaire.  He has no concept of how Voltaire and other Enlightenment thinkers gave us the ideas in our Constitution like equal protection.   And that he described the same rights we were exercising that day, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. 

“Tolerance, Reason, Facts – Make America Think Again.”  I think Voltaire would have liked that sign we also saw.  He might very well have voted for a president with that slogan, like maybe the one we’ve had for 8 years.

Merci, Voltaire.

Copyright © 2107 Deborah Streeter