Sunday, January 22, 2017

In grateful appreciation to those who marched ...

In Des Moines

I was so proud yesterday of friends, Facebook and otherwise, who participated in Women's Marches --- the mother march in Washington, D.C., sister marches across the nation (and the world).

At first, it seemed like it might be possible to keep track of all of these folks as social media reports started coming in from Des Moines.  Then there were dispatches from the West Coast, south and east through Texas and Oxford, Mississippi to Florida, up the East Coast to D.C., even skipping across the Atlantic to Paris --- and the impracticality of that became evident. 

In Des Moines.

The photos here are a few I snagged along the way, most Iowans, some with Iowa and/or Lucas County roots.

An estimated 26,000 turned out in Des Moines --- a huge deal in Iowa where march organizers thought originally the crowd would be small enough to fit into the Capitol. Crowd estimates are notoriously difficult to sort out. But there's general agreement that this was the biggest one-day demonstration of solidarity in the history of America as the number of marchers climbed into the millions.

In Des Moines

All in all, it was a welcome antidote to the poison of that dark, foreboding and by comparison sparsely attended inauguration ceremony on Friday.  

There are perilous days ahead and it's important to remember that President Trump is only the front man --- emotionally immature, morally empty and easily manipulated by malignant interests motivated by white nationalism, racism, xenophobia and Christianist-right extremism.

In Los Angeles

It's useful to remember, too, that many in that minority of Americans who voted this regime into power had no clear idea of what the consequences of their votes would be.

It wouldn't surprise me if women took the lead in seeing us safely through this, so thanks again to everyone I know who organized and marched.

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