We are getting noticed!

Good evening everyone. Thank you for signing this petition, which asks for Bernie Sanders to be removed from OPENING the Women's Convention. This petition was started in response to the Women's March Social Media Page posting the USA Today article with the headline "Bernie Sanders to deliver opening night speech at the Women's Convention." The optics of that headline, posted by the WM themselves, is disturbing and disappointing as it focuses opening night on a male, rather than a woman. The visibility of women is the focus of this petition, not Bernie's character. (There are other current petitions that focus more on the character of Bernie Sanders, and/or for him to be removed completely from the Convention.) Since this petition was posted, the Women's March has issued the following statement: "We are sorry we caused hurt and confusion for so many of you this week. Women’s March has always promoted taking accountability when addressing the issues that most divide our movement. We have always embraced daring discussions, and a key intention of The Women's Convention is to continue having these discussions. We acknowledge the announcement about Senator Sanders gave the impression he is occupying a central role at the convention. (He is not.) The Women’s Convention is, and always was, about centering the voices of women, and women of color in particular. We know women across the country are in pain and we regret that we added to that pain. We believe in a collective, united movement to build power. We believe in coming to the table to figure out how to work together on our shared values. Our intention is not to endorse one flank of the progressive movement over the other. Our intention is to come together, to unify in preparation for all the work ahead. This is manifested in a schedule of more than 100 workshops on every social justice topic, all led by women—and overwhelmingly women of color. Please stay tuned as we continue to announce more about the Women's Convention. Keep checking womensconvention.com for updates." They also posted a picture of Maxine Waters with the statement: "Let's clear this up: Senator Sanders is not headlining or opening the #WomensConvention." (Image included) It is still unclear who exactly IS opening the Convention, but I appreciate that the Women's March acknowledged our disappointment, and has issued an apology and a statement saying that Bernie is not opening, but rather one of several opening day speakers. He is still speaking and I realize that makes many of you very upset. Again, this petition does not ask for Bernie to be removed completely from the convention, only from being the opener. Healthy engagement and hard dialogue are part of any movement, as are deep disagreements. The end goal of this petition is not division, rather dialogue and disagreement that makes us stronger and better equipped to fight for the values and issues for which we are each passionate. I have reached out to the Women's March/Convention organizers for further information about the opening and will update you as I find out more. Contrary to a tweet I tweeted earlier today, this petition will not be removed. It is part of this process and doesn't need to be erased. In the moment, I was so happy to see an apology and a statement from the Women's March saying Bernie will not be the opener that I got tweet happy. We have certainly achieved the goal of letting the organizers know how disappointed we are with a Bernie Sanders opening. Nice job everyone! Lastly, remember this movement needs us all. We will never all agree and that is alright. What would we be doing on twitter if we did? :) More to come, Amanda