Editorial: Voters in Los Angeles and California elected a wave of women to the U.S. Congress in November.
The Women’s March on Washington is back and bigger than ever.
The “pink is the new black” mantra has come to include women of color, queer folks, LGBTQ+ folks, immigrants, and many others. That’s because it’s now the 50th anniversary of the first major mass political mobilization—the Women’s Strike for Equality—and also the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.
While some of these efforts will be small-ball elections, as is the case with the elections in California this week, every victory matters. As Dr. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Dr. Nina Pham wrote after voting for Hillary Clinton for president last November, “It matters now, more than ever, that we engage on issues that matter.”
And so, the Women’s March on Washington is back.
This isn’t an election. This isn’t the “general” election. This is the electoral fight to #Resist.
It’s about winning on issues that matter. And it’s about holding officials accountable. That’s why I put this question on Twitter:
I’m asking the great men and women of the Women’s March to take up this question with their local officials, asking them to meet #Resist this time.
So far, this is what I’ve heard back.
On Tuesday, June 28, after speaking and marching at the Women’s March on Washington, Rep. Jackie Speier, chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, invited me to testify as part of her Veterans Day “listening session.” There, she asked me to address a number of issues. In particular, she wanted to know what I thought of the ongoing VA scandal and how veterans’ rights on the front lines of national security will affect Congress’s ability to support veterans.
Before her meeting with me, members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing with other VA employees in Washington. I believe that all of their testimony made the same point: that the VA has been a
