For me, it's become increasingly harder to read the news. In the last couple of weeks, there's been the acquittal of Philando Castile's murderer, the stingy Senate health care plan, and continued attempts to silence media.
That's why I need - absolutely have - to attend events like Cocktails & Conversations from the United State of Women. The United State of Women is focused on gender equality and creates opportunity through collaboration. Causes includes health and reproductive rights, access to education, economic empowerment and civic engagement and community organizing.
A bit of a fan girl moment for me. Right before the event began, I upgraded my view to VIP. I was literally right in front of the panel, and, thus, my perfect twist out Afro landed in a lot of shots.
Since this movement has deep roots in the previous administration, it's not surprising that Tina Tchen, former chief of staff for First Lady Michelle Obama, and Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, are two of the movement's biggest supporters. Both are remarkable, magnetic women who even in these trying times maintain a terrific sense of humor and dedication.
As Ms. Tchen noted, "We are living through the challenge of our generation," and, for me, that's absolutely true. Until November 8, 2016, I believed that we were past such blatant attempts to maintain unfair playing fields, and I thought that in our highest levels of government, we wanted intelligent officials to weigh policies with some - if not fully the best - interests of their constituents in mind.
Yet, I sit here in June 2017 wondering whether this era of retro policies will lead us right back to 1950. Both Ms. Tchen and Ms. Jarrett reiterated that now is not the time to be disillusioned, and our democracy is what we make it. Maybe the delay of the vote on the Senate health care plan is a sign of that. Just last week, Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood noted that while a room of men crafted this disastrous bill, about 80 percent of the calls to Congress have been from women.
It may seem cliche, but we absolutely need our seats at the table. As Ms. Jarrett said last night, imagine how amazing Congress would be if it were half women. Notice she didn't say no men. It really is about equality.