Yesterday was a scary day, but even so, it was so
heartening to see hundreds of people – women, men, and children – patiently
waiting in line for their turn for a photo at Susan B. Anthony’s gravesite in Mount Hope Cemetery, and to
exchange their “I Voted” sticker for one that read “I Voted Today Because of
Women Like Her.” I ran into lots of friends, fresh from voting, in
the 9am hour. I joined the queue directly behind Jenni, Geva’s dramaturg, and
her wife Emily, who I learned is an Assistant Professor at Nazareth and oversaw
the lighting for the fantastic recent production of Women on the Verge! 
After I decided I couldn’t wait hours for a 30-second
photo at the tombstone, I wandered a bit and ran into my friend Johanna, from
Concentus, and her daughter Grace. She told me later that she’d been
interviewed by a reporter, who asked her why she had come to the cemetery. She
was choked up as she answered, “When
Hillary wins, I want my daughter to know she was a part of this day.”
Incredibly, right behind her was a man on a bike whom I
recognized as my pedaling partner in the May 2014 Ride of Silence! In the evening,
my a cappella group decided to curtail our rehearsal in order to entertain the
still-waiting crowd that were even bigger at 8:30pm than they’d been 12 hours
earlier.
It was very moving to be here in Rochester at this
moment in history. Thank you, Susan B. Anthony, for your vision, your
perseverance, and your faith in the progress of our society. I hope the outcome
of this election doesn’t set our country irreparably back socially, environmentally,
and economically.
Thank you Maggie! And thank you Susan B. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and all others who have come before us. We will continue the journey and we will prevail in support of love, inclusiveness, acceptance....
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