On Saturday I had the great joy of marching in the Women's March here in New York City. I have been so extremely upset about the incoming Trump presidency and his racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic policies and his appointments and people from Breitbart, the extreme right wing, white nationalist, fringe site, in the White House. Everything has been such dark, bad news. I signed up to march with our church, Judson Memorial Church, and I made the sign above to hang around my neck. My mother had a slogan, "Love is all," and this seemed like an appropriate twist on the message for the occasion.
TD went on a bus with Judson along with our nephew Aaron down to Washington D.C. to march. He made the sign below to pin on his jacket, dedicated to his mother Edna, a die-hard Democrat who passed away a few years ago.
In New York City I made plans to meet up with the Judson group and also invited my brother Thom and sister-in-law Karen to join us and they invited their friend Kathy from Mamaroneck. A jolly group. I rode my bike uptown and we met up with Judson and then all proceeded up Third Avenue. The directions from the march leaders were to enter the march at Third Avenue and 47th Street so that's where we went. And waited there standing and not moving for an hour and half. It was bad planning or too many people but in any case the corner got more and more crowded as people flooded in and nobody moved. The sky was cold and dark. Everyone was peaceful and pleasant but the crowding got dangerous.
Finally people moved eastward toward Second Avenue where the march was supposed to start. Thom and Karen and Kathy and I moved with the crowd and we lost the Judson contingent. Then suddenly it became apparent that we couldn't go forward and the crowd turned around about face and started chanting "Go to Fifth!" The crowd was going rogue and not following the march route and doing directly over to Fifth Avenue. We threaded single file across Third Avenue around cars which were stopped in their tracks. On we went over to Lexington where strings of buses were similarly stalled. Thom had enough and went up to the subway. Karen and Kathy stayed but as I filed through layers of stationary buses on Lexington, I lost them. I was by myself.
On I went determined to get to Fifth Avenue to join the march. Finally I reached Fifth and stepped on to the avenue which was packed with people shoulder to shoulder. The sun came out, the sky was blue, it was warm! It was like reaching the Emerald City.
As far as the eye could see, looking uptown or down, was a sea of people.
It really was an amazing sight. I've never experienced anything like it in New York City. The turnout was just gargantuan. And it felt good to be there and participating. The cool, good-looking crowd was a majority of women but a lot of men, and a range of all ages from small children to seniors. People were there with their parents and grandparents. The march site had indicated that we would march past Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue at 56th Street and everyone wanted to get there. But progress was slow. It took about an hour to go one block from 47th to 48th. I decided to peel off and go around up to 57th and Fifth. When I got there, surprise, police barricades. The police were diverting the crowd off Fifth at 55th Street so the march could not pass by Trump Tower. Cowardly.
But a lot of people were hanging out at 57th Street and Fifth, in front of Bergdorf Goodman, which was fun. The signs that people carried were clever. My favorite one, which was huge and carried by two people, said "Small march, sad," mimicking Donald Trump's pathetic tweets.
People were like-minded and wanted to connect. I started talking to a young woman and her mother and her grandmother. The grandmother lived on Riverside Drive and she was the most upset off all. Another guy struck up a conversation about the crowd size estimate. People enjoyed being together in solidarity against what is happening. Honestly I didn't want to leave but it was getting cold and late.
I had to pick up my bike so I headed down to 42nd Street. I was shocked to find that at 5:00, 42nd Street was completely packed with people who were just beginning the march, which was supposed to be over at 4:00.
And marches just like it were going on across the country and the world. Political scientists said that Saturday was the biggest day of protest in history. It was so encouraging to see the massive turnout and realize that there are so many people who are opposed to this darkness. We can fight this. We can.
