From sea to shining sea, Episcopal Cafe contributing editors participated in Women’s Marches across the country on Saturday. In Roanoke, Virginia, Cara Modisett joined over 4000 other protesters, while Rev Ann Fontaine was with a crowd of over 1400 (population 9,516) in Astoria, OR. Rev. Andrew Gerns was at the march in New York City, where participants have been estimated at over 400,000. Approximately 11,000 people marched in Ann Arbor, MI, where the author and editor, Margaret Wessel Walker, took part along with several friends and her godson, who, at eight months old, was at his first ever protest.
The main Women’s March on Washington DC has been estimated at around 500,000 participants, making it the largest peaceful protest in the nation’s history. Sister marches were held across the country and around the world, on all seven continents (yes, even Antarctica!). Almost every location saw far greater turnout than expected, and in Chicago and DC, the crowds were so huge that walking was impossible. Nonetheless, people overwhelmingly reported a cheerful, polite attitude, and police have announced that no arrests were made in relation to the protests in the US.
In her blog, Cara says, “There is power in voice, power in words, power in community. In the weeks leading up to this Saturday, part of me had wished to be in D.C. for the women’s march there, but yesterday I was so glad to be in Roanoke, with friends and strangers, saying loud and clear – THIS is what we value: love, peace, justice for all; compassionate and questioning faith that respects all living things; art, literature and spoken word that deepen our souls.”
Please check out our album on Facebook for more photos from Saturday’s marches, and contribute your own!
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It will come as no surprise to those who are students of history that women have always been at the vanguard of progressive social change. There are legions of “hidden figures” through the generations that played significant, if not essential, roles in human progress.
Now, they are not so hidden. Carry it forward and congratulations, folks.
The women’s march was fantastic but seemed to lack focus and, unfortunately, was an awful lot too late, coming after Mr. Trump’s election. In spite of it, he went right ahead and issued a broad executive order banning American government funds from going to health clinics, here and abroad, serving people with health conditions from AIDS to ZIKA, if they breathed one word about family planning or reproductive rights. My premonition is that this is just the tip of the Republican party’s neglect of or attack on women’s health rights.
Well done. thanks for this!