LETTERS

Saturday Lead Letter: One year after Women's March, our voices and our commitment remain strong

Amy Cherie Copeland

On Sunday — which marks the one-year anniversary of the historic Women’s March on Washington — we will be taking action once again to bring awareness to the issues that are faced by women from all intersections of society.

Tomorrow, both Women’s March Jacksonville and Women’s March St. Augustine will host a “Women’s Day of Action.”

It will be held at The Jacksonville Landing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. as one of four statewide rallies.

We will focus on taking our collective power to the polls in 2018, hoping to create major change through voting, voter registration and running for elected office.

We also will raise funds for our sister islands — Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Keys — that are still suffering from hurricane damage.

This year, these two local chapters of Women’s March Florida built on the energy of last year’s historic march to help mobilize women to take political action locally.

A nonpartisan group focusing on the issues, we educated citizens on local, state and federal legislation that affects their human rights.

We gained thousands of members, held dozens of educational meetings, mailed an estimated 2,000 postcards and made thousands of calls and visits to elected officials to address the legislation that affects our rights.

We also highlighted local women leaders and encouraged them to run for office.

We showed up at local City Council meetings to join forces with those who spoke for the underrepresented.

Thousands of us marched locally and statewide to help keep women and our communities front and center of the political consciousness.

We helped our community reach a tipping point that led many women to speak as they had never spoken before about sexism, racism, violence, sexual harassment, gun violence and social and economic injustice.

We raised our voices.

And we said what we felt we needed to say to make the world a better place.

We agreed with the statement of the poet Audre Lorde that our silence will not protect us. Therefore, we raised our collective voice.

Our Jan. 21 Rally for Liberation event will include speakers, education, voter registration, entertainment and relief fundraising for our sister islands.

We hope that you will join us in bringing our collective “Power to the Polls” in 2018.

Amy Cherie Copeland, captain,

Healthcare and Reproductive Rights Action Committee

Bonnie Hendrix, co-captain,

Women’s March Florida, Jacksonville chapter

Jennifer Wolfe, co-captain, Women’s March Florida, Jacksonville chapter