After the US Presidential Election last November, I was left
sick to my stomach and unable to sleep for several days. I can’t remember politics having such a
physical effect on my before. It was
downright scary how much fear was in my heart and mind after my country chose
to vote for a hateful, fear-mongering failure as leader of the nation. Honestly, I still can’t quite believe it was
true. It defies logic.
It was hard to figure out what to DO. I knew that my representatives in Congress
were going to fight the good fight for the American people, but they are in the
minority party. There was little I could
see myself doing, besides continuing to teach that we should judge sources
carefully, not believe everything we see on the internet, and love all humans
equally, always.
When I heard about the Women’s March, it gave me hope. I booked hotel rooms. I made rough plans. I joined up with friends and we set off on a
grand adventure. Leaving Friday late
afternoon, we had an easy ride to Philadelphia, where we stayed the night. Up early the next morning, we drove through
foggy weather down to DC. Every rest
area that we passed was FULL of buses- so many people were making the journey,
it defied belief. Once we got close, we
heard that the Greenbelt Metro station garage was full, so we rerouted to
College Park and arrived with plenty of spaces still available. That doesn’t mean there weren’t people- the
line to buy tickets was nearly two hours long!
Everyone was pleasant and positive through the whole thing. It was truly the nicest crowd ever.
Once we were on the Metro, we heard that L’Enfant Plaza stop
was closed because people were backed up onto the platform. They couldn’t get out of the station, the
streets were so jammed. Then we heard
that Archives was closed for the same reason, on the far side of the mall. We ended up getting off at Galleria. As soon as we exited the station, the protest
erupted in the streets. Cars were
stopped, because there were so many people walking down 7th St. Everyone had signs and held them tall. John Kerry walked right by us!
When we got to Constitution, the mall was totally full of
people. We were directed right, past the
archives. With a full streetful of
people we marched down Constitution, past the White House, all the way to the
Lincoln Memorial, around, and back up Indpendence. At that point people were stopped in their
cars as the protest went by. Most were
cheering and beeping their horns. It was
so powerful just to be in that.
When we got back up to the Washington Monument, we met the
bulk of the march moving down Independence and turning toward the White
House. Everything slowed down. There were chants—
“NO HATE, NO FEAR! IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE”
“SHOW ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!”
“THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE.”
“WE NEED A LEADER, NOT A CREEPY TWEETER.
And my favorite: “WE WILL NOT GO AWAY! WELCOME TO YOUR FIRST DAY!”
Eventually we went back past the White House and up to
MacPhearson Square, where things broke up.
We tried to find food, since we’d missed lunch, but everything was so
crowded. We ended up with chips and
drinks from a convenience store at the edge of Chinatown, before getting back
to the Metro. The ride back was long-
full trains, breakdowns, medical emergencies.
Still, everyone was in good spirits and sharing phone chargers and
stories of the day. We ended up taking a
Lyft back to the car from a station after our train went out of service, then
had a delicious dinner at Hard Times Café in College Park. We stayed in Maryland, and had the smoothest
drive home the next day.
This was a new kind of travel for me, and sadly one I see
myself doing more in the future. It was
incredibly uplifting to see so many different people coming together from so
many parts of the country to stand up for women’s rights in all forms. I’m so happy I was able to participate in
this.
