I have a lot of competing thoughts about todays marches.  I thought about saying nothing, and keeping my thoughts to myself out of fear they may be misconstrued. Taken wrong. Then I realized the biggest part of the problem is that there are people like me who choose silence more than they should.

I was unaware that the marches were going to happen until yesterday (I’m still living in the bubble that infant twins create). I like to think if I knew they were going to happen, I’d have joined in.

The fact that I don’t know if I would concerns me.

What I do know is that I have been privileged to work with some amazing female leaders. I am lucky to even be married to one. I also know that there is a large portion of the population out there that thinks that women in any sort of power should be an exception, not a norm. These people are most likely scared and afraid. Fear of change is acceptable emotion to have. What matters though is how you handle it. I see two possible choices; you confront it with open hands or closed fists.

There are too many closed fists in this world.

So what can I do to ensure that there are more open hands? I can embrace the fact, that I am privilege by the mere fact I happened to be born male and that with this power comes a responsibility. I need to be a strong role model to both my boys and the other men I interact with. I need to help raise people with my open hands, not push them down.

I need to embrace the fact that this may not be easy. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing. I will stumble, and I will recover.

So as a first step, inspired by @gminor, I made a donation today to the girls institute, because I’ve worked with many rad female leaders, and I think the future needs more rad female leaders.

Today the world made a strong statement and showed both young boys and girls that women can be brave. Women can be resilient. Women can be leaders. Women are equals.

And tomorrow we need to show the young boys and girls of the world that women can be brave, women can be resilient. Women can be leaders. Women are equals. And we need to do this the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, and so on until the message finally sticks.