I didn’t tell my sons before I went to Washington, D.C.–one had already moved away to college, the other was still in high school–but they were very much on my mind on that day, April 25, 2004. It was the day of the “March for Women’s Lives” when over half a million people gathered at the Washington Monument to express their support for a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. I believe they knew where I stood on this issue. Attending the march affirmed the values I wanted to share with them. It mattered to me, and I wanted it to matter to them.
This was not the first, nor will it be the last, march for “Rights”. We are this month commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Civil Rights. Although attendance at the 1963 March was half of what it was in April of 2004, its impact was enormous, yet incomplete. We will know that the goal has been achieved when the Equal Justice Society can rest. How long will it take? It matters to me and I want it to matter to them.