Local women to march against Trump today
Regardless of what Mother Nature may bring today, Delco women will be gathering in Philadelphia and in Media as part of the Women’s March that began three years ago in response to the election of President Donald Trump.
“The first Women’s March lit a fire that is our duty to tend,” U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5 of Swarthmore, who is a featured speaker at the Philadelphia event, said. “Women - and our allies around the country - marched in January 2017 to make clear that the divisive views and policies espoused by President Trump are not American views and values. We marched and organized to make clear that American women stand up for our families and the values that bind rather than divide us — the values that we teach our children to live by.”
She talked about how it inspired others to get involved.
“The march was just the kindling of a fire that is burning brightly with the resurgence of civic engagement and the transformational engagement of women at every level - organizing, voting, running for office - in this centennial year of the 19th Amendment,” Scanlon said. “We continue to march in solidarity for there is so much more we can accomplish, together. “
As Scanlon takes the stage, she might run across Laura Wentz, the Upper Darby Council president who also is a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Union Local 8. Wentz is the lighting designer for the event and is also working it, adjusting people’s microphones and other such stage duties.
In fact, because it’s so critical to her, she’s volunteering her services for the event. “Not that I can financially afford it, but it needed to happen,” Wentz said.
In the midst of that, she’ll get the chance to step away from the stage for a moment as the organizers asked her to help carry the lead banner as well, particularly with her elected role as the new president of Upper Darby Township Council.
A member of various Indivisible groups, Wentz said she befriended founders of the Philadelphia march years ago as they prepared for the initial one.
“As it was coming closer, I kept dropping the union concept,” she said, asking if the shirts were going to be union made and other similar questions.
Wentz shared why this march is important to her.
“It’s essential,” she said, “because since (the president) was elected, our quality of life has decreased immensely.”
She noted attacks on women’s reproductive rights, the environment, the creation of detention camps on the Southern border, the separation of families, keeping children in cages and in awful conditions.
“There’s so many horrific things that are going on,” Wentz said. “There’s just too many things, it’s too much. It’s essential to be there. There’s no where else I would want to be ... I think now more than ever we need to stand together and fight for people’s rights.”
This past Monday, Eli Bromley of Nether Provi
dence asked herself, “In Media, why don’t we have one?” So, she set out to organize it herself.
So, the grassroots effort will reap a contingent of unknown size that will walk from Barrell Community Park at State and Radnor streets at 10:15 a.m.. down Radnor Street to Baltimore Avenue, then up Orange Street to Front Street.
“At the courthouse, we will hold a moment of silence for women around the world,” she said.
Bromley emphasized that the event will be peaceful. “My whole motto here is this is about love, kindness, acceptance, equality and respect,” she said. “It’s not about anger. It’s about looking forward to what we want for women. We should be treated absolutely equal and how can we make that happen.”
She said she also wanted to highlight the role of civic engagement and “trying to live the example that you want to be - a strong woman - and not allow yourself to be silent.”