On January 21st, 2017, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington DC and in other cities around the globe to peacefully protest on President Trump's first day in office.
Over the course of the day, many news channels livestreamed the march. The march in DC officially started at 10 AM at the intersection of Independence Avenue and Third Street SW, near the U.S. Capitol.. The plan was to march to the White House, however due to the overwhelming crowds, the entire march route was filled with people, making the actually marching nearly impossible.
Every person in the March had a different agenda on why they were protesting. Some reasons were due to Trump's campaign platform and some comments that were leaked during his presidency campaign such as his comments on sexually assaulting women. Other people were protesting against Trump's weak political background or protesting for women's rights.
Many celebrities attended either the march in DC, or the sister marches all across the country. Actress Chelsea Kane protested in the sister march in Los Angeles, and posted a picture to her Instagram with a caption that embodies all the reasons on why so many people decided to march.The caption said, "We're not protesting because our candidate didn't win. We are protesting to keep rights that have already been won over the years and are now being threatened under the new administration: to have equal rights no matter what race or gender you are, the right to love who you want to love, to control your own body and decide when you want to have a family, and to worship your God the way you want to worship. The women of the world felt it was important to remind our government that these issues are very important to us and we need to continue to move forward, not backward."
During the sister march livestream in NYC, a reporter asked one women why she wanted to march, and the women pointed to her son and said "He'll tell you why." The reporter then asked her ten year old son who said, "Climate change and immigration." This strongly shows that it's not just women who are protesting for rights, but kids too.
According the Women's March on Washington's official website, their mission of the march was for "[We] do stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families - recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country."
Also on their website, they numbered the amount of marches that were happening around the world and how many people were protesting. The number of sister marches that were happening was 673, and there was 4,721,500 and counting marchers around the globe.
The sister marches were all over the world, not just in the United States. There were marches in Europe and Australia as well as one reported in Antarctica too.
My mother and older sister attended the march in DC. I had planned to go with them, but as the number of people expected to attend kept growing, I decided that I would prefer to watch on livestream at home. They were there for the entire day. My mom said that when the actual march was actually going to happen, one of the organizers got up on the stage to say, "So our plan was to march down this road (my mom used hand signals to show me what she meant) and go that way and end at the ellipse... But there are so many people that it's already filled up. So what we're going to tell you to do is go right and go left." My mom even added, while laughing, "There wasn't even really a march, necessarily. It was more of a shuffle."
There were reports that there were over 2.9 million people in DC for the march. After hearing that, I am glad I made the decision to pass. Though, my mom and sister reported that the crowd was so polite and peaceful, that being squished together for such a long amount of time was not unpleasant.
The large number of people participating in marches all over the world should send a message to the new administration that the American people are not willing to give up their rights without a fight.
The peaceful demonstration of the marches around the world signifies that there is hope and action on the minds of many people.
For more information on the Women's March on Washington, go to their website here: https://www.womensmarch.com/ .
