WASHINGTON, DC – The metro stations became impromtu march locations as thousands could not get from the metro platforms to outside the stations. Some stations shut down. Some conductors wouldn’t allow people to exit the metro cars until the platforms emptied.
But spirits were high and goals were on target: To send President Trump a message similar to one that opponents to Arizona’s SB1070 anti-immigrant legislation sent in 2010, “We Will Not Comply!”
A march of a diverse group of women, men, and all ages of children took to the streets of Washington DC in solidarity with marches and messages from around the world. Capetown, Dublin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Yangon, and even Paradise Bay in Antarctica all held solidarity marches.
Christine Dinsmore of Woodstock, New York said that she has been fighting for social justice since the 1960’s. (all photos: The Nation Report)
Christine Dinsmore of Woodstock, New York talked to The Nation Report before she marched, “I thought in my old age that I was going to be fine tuning social justice. I didn’t expect to be doing this again. I’ve been doing this since the 60’s, civil rights, the Vietnam War. Today I’m happy that folks are here. I wish more of them had been at the voting booth on November 8th. I’m not so sure that happened. I’m hoping that when we walk, we’ll see that it’s massive.” When asked about her advice for the younger generation, she responded, “Pay attention. Don’t let any injustice go without reacting to it. Coalition politics. And mostly that you have to give up the ‘perfect’ for the ‘good.’ Unfortunately Progressives, they look for the perfect, and therefore don’t take the good, and we get stuck with the awful.”
Eight-year old Edie (l) from Manhattan was marching with her two moms and carried a sign that read, “No President Defines this family.” She told The Nation Report, “I’m just saying, we’re a family. There’s nothin anyone can do about it. No one’s going to change that, because everyone’s here.” When asked if it was cool to have two moms, she responded, “It is awesome to have two moms!”
Max Obuszewski (r) of Baltimore carried a sign that read, “STOP THE WAR MACHINE. EXPORT PEACE.” He said that he had watched news reports of Inauguration Day events from the previous day and was disappointed in media coverage that focused on the acts of violence of a few, and missed the message that the masses were bringing to the streets. “NCNR is always promoting nonviolence. It’s the only cure,” Obuszewski is a member of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR), a group that is trying to raise awareness about the threat of nuclear war and the numbers of nuclear missiles on “hair trigger alert.” These missiles, located all over the US can be launched in a matter of 15 minutes at the whim of a Trump administration. He was also disappointed that militarism is left out of the discussion when talking about issues to be concerned about under a Trump administration, “If you go back to World War I, most casualties of war were military personnel, and as time goes on into the 21st century, the casualties now are civilians, and obviously a lot of those civilians are women or female children. So that’s what we wanted to do today, to bring out that issue. The other side of militarism is it’s taking money away from social programs. Many of the social programs benefit women and children. We wanted to express our perspective that we’ve got to take on this idea that more than 50% of the US discretionary budget goes to militarism. So we’re here today to say, ‘Export peace.'”
