750,000 strong in L.A.
500,000 in Washington, DC
250,000 in Chicago
150,000 in Boston
120,000 in Seattle (!)
100,000 in Saint Paul (!)
100,000 in Denver (!)
And 400,000 plus in Manhattan
Not to mention 10,000 strong in my beloved Ithaca, NY #ithacaisgorges
Welcome to a street protest sampling on Day 2 in Trump America. To say nothing of the demonstrations in 37 cities worldwide, including London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Tokyo and many others (including ANTARTICA… yes, really).
Welcome to the Women’s March all over the world.
Welcome to the PEOPLE’S ANTIDOTE to the much touted right wing nativist – or shall we just say it – white nationalist – movement.
Welcome to the ANTI – REVOLUTION. The REAL REVOLUTION
The real story was in the crowd. Aged from two to early 80s in Los Angeles, my home turf. Well, at least I thought it was the oldest were in their early 80s. Given L.A. standards of “beauty,” that man could have been in his 180’s and those two gray haired older ladies, who had clearly marched in the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s might have been even older. At least chronologically. We preserve ourselves well out here. Or, well, at least we can make it look that way. Welcome to the deepest blue state in America. But don’t be jealous. Instead, come join us.
Greetings from LA LA LAND
The ingenuity of the signs and the phrases they came up with other than “Dump Trump’ really got me. Very clever.
People of Quality, Don’t Fear Equality.
Love Women, Don’t Grab Them.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun-Damental Rights
A Woman’s Place is in the Resistance.
If You Thought SHE was Nasty, Get a Load of Us.
And my ABSOLUTE favorite:
THE. BEST.
People were EVERYWHERE.
You couldn’t march much of anywhere but that wasn’t the point. The point was to show Congress and perhaps the world what we believed. That THIS is the movement. That we won’t take it lying down. Who knew that so many in the world were already with us?
That poor Telemundo reporter and her camera person. It was gridlock. She was in full hair and makeup. But not sweating. No one was sweating. It was a beautiful L.A. day – in the high fifties, brisk, sun shining. People’s faces were not gleeful so much as they were welcoming.
The Metro stations were jammed. Luckily I parked at a friend’s house about a half hour walk away. I met friends who drove in from several hours away. And then friends of their friends from various spots all over southern California. As their friends to the north were demonstrating in San Francisco, while mine were doing the same in Oakland.
The Chair (2nd from right) and his crew #strongertogether
It wasn’t just women. At least a third to a half were men. The march was about women’s rights – reproductive and otherwise. But it was also about immigration. And health care. About LGBTQ rights. About racism and the rights of black and brown and yellow people. Mostly, it was about equality. Women brought their 8 year old daughters. Men clasped their 6 year old boys by the hand, pointing and leading them through a sea of humanity and teaching them, or perhaps the better word is instructing them, on how to behave as kids, and, in turn, as adults.
Sing it, sister
There will be NO TOLERANCE for a curtailment of hard fought freedom.
There will be NO PEACE if the person who is now occupying the White House who lost the popular vote by almost THREE MILLION – begins to roll back women’s reproductive rights, or begins mass deportation of immigrants, or tries to normalize discrimination against the LGBT community through exercise or non-exercise of a white nationalist agenda.
What we were demonstrating is that ALL of these rights are essentially the same. If you scapegoat ONE of us, you scapegoat ALL of us. We Americans will not put up with a strategy of turning us all against each other. Even if a plurality of the White House’s current occupant’s voters are fine with allowing it.
WE, THE MAJORITY, will continue to speak out. To Resist. To Demonstrate. Every day for the next four years, if necessary.
The new occupant will not bring America to its knees.
We, the people, will monitor the new occupant and, if necessary, cut his agenda off at its symbolic knees. And then, if still necessary, EVICT him.
This will happen if he refuses to listen to the majority because THE NEW REALITY is that HE WORKS FOR US.
And he knows better than anyone does that when employees do not listen to reason from their boss – the boss, at the end of the day, can only answer them with two words:
YOU’RE FIRED.
#Demonstrate. #Resist. #Act. #Donate.
notes from a chair 