Millions of people united and marched all over the world to stand in solidarity against the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Saturday.
Advertisement
The Women’s March website tries to make it as easy as possible: It helps you determine who your senators are and how to send the postcard to them, and it provides hashtags you can browse for inspiration. “This is the point where you should become an active citizen and figure out what are the things that are important to you and how are you going to go about making them happen”.
Sophomore Teresa Brickey was part of a group that traveled to Washington.
Bowling Green junior Alexa Hatcher said participating in the march made her realize how many people out there share her perspective. It was there that “I have a dream” came forth, and today, many women continue to fight for equal treatment, equal pay, and more – but it might be said now, as it should have been then, that “we have a dream”, because indeed there were so very many of us in the streets of D.C. peacefully hammering away at still-pervasive issues. Don’t limit your participation to a single march: Keep working toward justice.
The March initially predicted 200,000 participants, almost half of the actual turnout, according to its Facebook page.
Feminism gives me reason to be hopeful: though the challenges of dismantling patriarchy are many, there is a fairer society to strive for, and there are changes that we can all make to get there.
Approximately 600 similar demonstrations took place around the country on Saturday in an attempt to unify people around issues of women’s rights, immigration and civil rights, according to Women’s March organizers.
People took to the streets with one goal in mind: equality. Among the thousands were groups of Manhattan College students. The Women’s March may be over, but there’s plenty you can do to actually help. I have much to learn from them and hope to do so throughout my life.
There has been a multitude of responses to the march, ranging from those who felt is was a revolutionary symbol of unity and femme power, to those who felt it was a problematic but necessary step in women’s history, to those who felt is was exclusively a celebration of white feminism.
Participants in the march came prepared with signs bearing slogans that ranged from creative and witty to assertive and provocative.
While the mission never directly cites Trump or his administration, many cable news stations tended to assume that anti-Trump sentiment motivated the protests.
Paula Espitia and Amber Perez, both freshmen at MC, shared an encounter with one of these celebrities.
“We got a lot of interest”, Darst said.
More than three million people attended Women’s Marches across the USA, and sister marches attracted even more attendees across all seven continents.
Anderson made T-shirts with stencils opposing President Donald Trump to hand out to fellow marchers, and Whitney McFarlane said it’s important to attend such marches as a sign of support.
For all the people that honked their horns, cheered from their windows and stood on the curbs encouraging marchers, their voices were heard.
Women sing along as thousands pack the streets for the Women’s March on Washington rally outside the National Museum of the American Indian on January 21 in Washington, D.C. Mulitple groups of Ball State students also attended the march.
The Women’s March on Washington movement advocates for equality for all groups on a variety of issues. The march itself couldn’t decide if it supported sex workers or not (and frankly I doubt the march as a whole did – I credit sex worker inclusion entirely on Janet Mock’s labor). This was their first time, their introduction to taking the streets.
In the past I’ve compared women who willingly convert to this most sexually oppressive of religions to those sad-sacks who write love letters to crazed sex-killers on Death Row; similarly, the Women’s March looked a lot like a mass wedding of – to quote Christopher Hitchens on the anti-Iraq War protests – “the silly led by the sinister”.
Advertisement
One sign held in Washington said, “I know signs I make the best signs”. You don’t have to agree with someone that believes completely different things than you do, but you do need to let them be heard and support the fact that they’re exercising their freedom of speech and freedom to assemble. We used our voices, and we marched on for a women’s rights, equality, and basic human decency. For a minute there, I was afraid we had been utterly lost.
