While there appeared to be some empty seats at the presidential inauguration ceremony, the Women’s March became the largest presidential protest march in history.
January 20, 2017 was a rough day for millions of Americans as the person they feared took office. Amongst the agony and sorrow, something special took place the next day. All across the states, and even over seas, millions of people practiced their constitutional rights and participated in a peaceful protest march called The Women’s March. Their words were heard all over the world as they chanted: “Love not hate, makes America great.”
According to their website, The Women’s March’s mission is as follows: We support the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equality at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equality for all.
History was made on January 21, 2017, as The Women’s March became the largest presidential protest march in history. Women, men, LGBT members, Muslims, and minorities marched together with the goal of having their voices heard as they called for equality.
There have been many historical marches in history like women’s suffrage along with marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. What made this march different is the power of social media and how many people were reached, which resulted in a turnout for the record books. For the people who could not attend, they were still apart of the movement as they watched their fellow Americans and friends over seas from social media accounts.
The march called for equality, but their calls attempted to be blocked as press conferences were held from the other side to talk about crowd size at the inauguration. Despite that, social media was filled with the millions marching for equal rights for all. They held their signs high with smiles on their faces, spoke without missing a beat, and continued to march on. The press conferences did not silence the crowd. It only empowered them more.
In a world full of hate, The Women’s March brought so much hope to millions of people. For a lot of people, their world shattered on November 9th 2016 when the election results came in. The person who spoke of hate had won. For the 65,844,610 people who did not vote for him, their hearts broke as they tried to find an ounce of light on their darkest day.
But they did find that light. The Women’s March started to come together as celebrities and activists encouraged their fellow brothers and sisters to join them in marching. Word of the event traveled fast across social media. The march was located in D.C., but millions took their march to different cities across the word. From towns in Texas, North Carolina, Delaware, and California, to Paris, France and Barcelona, Spain, what was once a tiny ounce of light, became a powerful source of hope.
Celebrities like Scarlet Johansson, Alicia Keys, Van Jones, and Ashley Judd took stage and demanded their voices be heard – that OUR voices be heard. The march sent the message that we will not lay down and die. We deserve to have our voices heard and we will demand they be heard. We stand for our LGBT, Muslim, Hispanic, and black brothers and sisters. We stand for women. We stand for America. “We are America and we are #HereToStay.” – @AmericaFerrera
I found myself swallowing a lump in my throat as I watched the speeches and marchers. This is a different lump in my throat than what was there on November 9th. This one was from happiness, optimism, and pride. On January 21, 2017, I found the light that I’d been missing since November.
What does this mean for the future? It means there’s still hope as we stand together, and we continue to fight. It means our voices will be heard, whether people want to hear them or not. It means that just because we lost the election, it doesn’t mean we let them take everything we worked so hard to achieve. We will not bow down and be silent.
Thank you, Women’s March for giving us hope.
Sources:
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/808687909314461696/x5TLi34R.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2tdTyoXgAAvKBJ.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2s6C73W8AIhhWY.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2twoUDUAAAt3wa.jpg:large
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/21/politics/trump-women-march-on-washington/