About 200,000 people were expected for the march. My first sign that it was going to be bigger than that was on the drive into Arlington. The pedestrian bridge over Route 66 at the Vienna Metro station was jam-packed with people. I saw on Facebook that lines to get on the subway were extremely long. When we got dropped off around 9:15 a.m., there were lots of people – a group of Mennonite men and women singing a beautiful and carefully practiced song. Tons of people in pink hats, carrying signs. There were men there, I'd say more than I expected.
We tried to figure out where best to position ourselves so that we might see at least a screen that was broadcasting what was happening on the stage. We ended up in a nook near the American Indian Museum, where we could look through a tree to see a screen - we figured it was probably the best we could comfortably do. So there we stayed. We watched in amazement at the scene behind us on the National Mall....
The people just kept coming and coming – it was truly a sea of humanity, many of them in their pink hats. It was quite a visual. I wish any of my pictures did it justice, but they really don't.
Unfortunately we weren't able to hear much from the stage, as the speakers only worked intermittently, and they weren't loud enough anyway. We "listened" to the speakers for about two hours, and did a lot of people watching, checking out the wide variety of incredible signs people brought.
By this time it was about 12:30, with the march scheduled to begin at 1:15. With so many people there, there was minimal internet access or even cell service. But we could tell that the day had far exceeded all expectations. And we knew there was little chance we'd actually be able to make it to the march route - what little online info and word of mouth we got actually even said they'd called off the march because there were too many people – I think that was briefly true, but quickly rescinded. It took us 45 minutes to go about two blocks, so we just followed the non-marching crowd, and ended up walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, which had been shut down at the last minute. The Capitol Building behind us, and still a sea of pink hats and protest signs. We walked and we followed the chants of a girl, probably 8 years old – "Tell me what democracy looks like!" – "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!" I've never participated in a chant before! LOL
I've been in lots of crowded situations, but never anything of this magnitude. And you know what, it was truly incredible – I saw nothing but patience and kindness, the entire day. No one was impatient, no one got belligerent at the close quarters. Just kindness. Can you imagine? And while it's hard to know exact numbers, the DC crowd was estimated to be 500,000. And there were sister marches all around the country, around the world, on every single continent. Absolutely astonishing.
I will say that there were lots of hysterically funny but vulgar signs, which I appreciated but could've done without...let's not sink to that level. But it was about freedom for people to express themselves, so even if it wasn't my thing, I respect that it might be yours.
Some folks evidently weren't too keen on the Women's March, or didn't know what it was about. I read this online, and it works for me...I am proud to have been there.
We march for EQUAL PAY
We march for THE RIGHT TO CONTROL OUR BODIES
We march for A LIVABLE PLANET
We march for THE END OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
We march for HEALTH CARE FOR ALL
We march for PUBLIC EDUCATION
We march for THE CONSTITUTION
AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS.
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