Masses send message
Washington: Huge crowd hits capital to protest Trump
WASHINGTON — On his second day in office, President Trump met the vanguard of his opposition: A mile-long army of women who marched to his new home, vowing to resist anything he might do that would harm them and their allies.
As one sign read at Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington: “Women are the wall. And Trump will pay.”
The streets of Washington were much more crowded Saturday than during Friday’s presidential inauguration, as hundreds of thousands of women — along with some of their male partners and supporters — thronged the nation’s capital for a five-hour rally and march. Aerial photos compiled by Vox show a bigger crowd on the National Mall during the march than during the
inauguration, to which 250,000 tickets were distributed, officials said.
There was star power onstage Saturday — Madonna, Alicia Keys and Janelle Monáe performed and spoke. A few politicians joined them — California Sen. Kamala Harris had a speaking spot, and Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee appeared onstage. And filmmaker Michael Moore encouraged people to call their representatives every day and said, “We have to take back the Democratic Party.”
They shared the stage with speakers representing Black Lives Matter, Mothers of the Movement — the seven women who appeared at the Democratic National Convention last year who each had a child who died as a result of police actions — and advocates for transgender and immigrant rights, all constituencies who feel threatened under the new presidency.
Several speakers said women should lead with love, not the hate they saw during the campaign. “Yes, I have thought about blowing up the White House,” Madonna told the crowd. “But I choose love.”
But Saturday belonged to the marchers, not the speakers. They traveled to the capital with their daughters and grandmothers and girlfriends. Almost all carried a sign that told a story. About their rage at Trump: “If you cut off our reproductive rights can we cut off yours?” Their fears: “I will not go quietly back to the 1950s.” And their promises: “Hell hath no fury.”
From the stage to the streets, one theme was consistent: This march — the largest of more than 600 “sister marches” around the world — shouldn’t be a one-off but a beginning. Even though the march was started by people talking on Facebook the day after the election, several warned that “clicktivism” — online activism — won’t be sufficient to resist the new administration.
“Sometimes we must put our bodies where our beliefs are,” pioneering feminist Gloria Steinem said. “Sometimes pressing ‘send’ is not enough.”
Many women, like Mary McLaughlin of San Francisco, described coming to Washington as a pilgrimage, a time to salve the wounds of an election campaign that included discussion of Trump’s history of making derogatory, misogynistic remarks.
McLaughlin met three friends in Washington, even though there was a march in San Francisco, too. Being with friends helped her heal, “and it was important to come to Washington to show Trump that we’re going to come right to where he lives to hold him accountable.”
McLaughlin said she felt a little guilty about not doing more to support Hillary Clinton last fall after backing her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. After she returns to the Bay Area, she plans to “invest a lot of time and energy” in resisting Trump. “I feel lighter already after being here,” she said, as marchers danced by her as Madonna sang “Express Yourself.”
So did Kenzie Hines, who took a few days off from college in Vermont to come to the march with her mother, Dovi Hines and grandmother, Sally Sare, who live nearby in Virginia and were at their first-ever demonstration. “This was our way of saying to President Trump, ‘We see you. And we’re watching you,’ ” Kenzie Hines said.
Other women made the journey for those who couldn’t. Katherine Hunter came from Boulder, Colo., with her 11-year-old daughter, Sarah, and wore a pink shirt that read, “X 126.” On the back were the names of 126 people she was representing in the capital.
“I feel powerful being here, and being here makes me feel powerful,” Hunter said.
Jessica Wallin, 38, came from Ketchikan, Alaska, “because after the election, I had this feeling like, ‘What the hell can I do?’ But being here with all these people makes me want to go home and do something. I think I’m going to have (Alaska) Sen. (Lisa) Murkowski’s number memorized.”
Trump inspired the day’s dominant word, as it was a response to the release during the campaign of a decade-old “Access Hollywood” video in which he boasts of using his celebrity to force himself upon women. “Grab them by the pussy,” Trump said in the recording. “You can do anything.”
The word that once wasn’t said aloud was everywhere Saturday — on signs, on shirts, bellowed from the stage.
They “ain’t for grabbing,” actress Ashley Judd said. “They are for birthing new generations of filthy, vulgar, nasty, proud, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh — you name it — for new generations of nasty women.”
The Pussyhat Project — women knitted pink, cat-eared hats to wear to the march — was a huge success, as the vast majority of women, and a few men, wore them.
After the rally, many of the marchers walked by the newly opened Trump International Hotel. Thousands dumped their signs in front of the barricades lining the hotel. Many more stopped by the hotel to boo and chant, “We need a leader, not a creepy tweeter.” Some posed before the hotel’s “Trump” marquee, extended a middle finger and took a photo.
Standing with her sister, daughter and a friend, Baltimore resident Rebecca Gray left the paper Statue of Liberty torch she carried around all day in front of Trump’s hotel.
“That,” she said, “seems like an appropriate way to end this day.”
“This was our way of saying to President Trump, ‘We see you. And we’re watching you.’ ” Kenzie Hines, Vermont college student