Sunday, January 22, 2017

Standing Together

The "real" Women's March yesterday was in Washington, DC, where planners planned for 2 million and 4.5 million showed up.  But all over the nation, and even around the world, people came together in numbers that surprised everyone to walk together and stand together against injustice and a President with a frightening agenda.  
 
In Charleston, SC, we feared the rain would keep people home.

We were stunned when, for over an hour, a steady stream of marchers came out of the fog and rain from two directions to join those already gathered in the park.

We watched the 200 originally expected grow 
to "well over" 2000 -- 
 women and men, young and old, babies and children, black, white and brown, Muslim, Christian,
 atheist (their signs said so), Native Americans, LGBT, immigrants.
 
 
 
The theme was "unity, activism, and empowerment" and boy, we needed a dose of hope in the hours following Trump's inauguration and his immediate actions to undermine social security, cripple protection of the environment, increase the cost of affordable housing for the poor, and destroy the Affordable Care Act. 

Some of the diverse issues represented ...
 
 


 
 
 
 



It was good to be part of the comaraderie, hope, and anger for a few hours.  
It was uplifting to see a generation of young men supporting the rights of women, to see people who cared enough to give up their Saturday and stand in the rain.  

When the march was over and all had left the park, we were still in the parking lot eating the lunch we had brought. The roadsides of South Carolina are a cesspool of litter but in the park just vacated by over 2000 people who had stood in the rain -- at lunch time -- for hours, there was not ONE plastic water bottle, not one scrap of litter in the grass.  Not one.  
I'm not sure what that says but it was, for me, the brightest spot in a rainy day.
 
 

14 comments:

  1. Cynthia I support you , too. Take care

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  2. Good for you. I watched it on TV. I wish now I'd summoned the courage to attend in Washington! Let's hope the momentum can continue.

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  3. Well done Cynthia for being there and being counted. There was a demonstration in London yesterday as well as in other European cities.

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  4. Good for you for standing up for what you believe in.

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  5. The worldwide marches were a wonderful display of solidarity. I so hope the power of the people will hold sway for people's rights.

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  6. Cloudia's comment says it all.

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  7. Heard about all the walking but didn't see it on TV...mixed messages I heard so really don't know why all were marching.

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  8. What a great protest of united people. So good to see that there are still people with common sense in the US. In Amsterdam there was a walk too and many other cities in Europe. Women power!

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  9. It was a mighty gathering of folks. Over 60,000 (I heard 90,000 later) near the St. Paul Capitol and one arrest . . . not of a marcher, but of someone OPPOSED to the march.

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  10. I marched too just differently. As I marched into the voting booth last November and cast my vote.
    I am glad your group did not litter as I have seen some real messes out there. :)

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  11. Well done Cynthia !! As to littering there must have been more than a few ex Upper Midwesterners there rather than Texas etc. types where trashy highways without rest stops and other public amenaties like garbage cans are much less common...:)

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  12. Good on you. Marches were held here in Australia in all capital cities.
    He ( the buffoon called Trump) has upset the apple cart with tearing up the
    Trans-Pacific Free trade partnership. Not very bright thing to do.
    Colin

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  13. I so hope the power of the people will hold sway for people's rights.


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