Yesterday, I saw a link to the national website and checked if locations had been added. Several had been. The closest was probably the march in Windsor, Ontario, but that carried a few too many complications. Next closest was Ann Arbor in the diag of the University of Michigan.
So I went. I got there plenty early and walked around a bit and watched people gather. The weather was sunny with temps in the upper 30s F. Though the event was set to start at 2:00 the podium stayed empty until about 2:10. First up were three Native American women with their songs of welcome and blessing. Alas, they showed a deficiency of the sound system, which picked up their drums quite well, but wasn’t as good as picking up their voices. Then came a three person band with guitars and protest songs. Their sound setup was much better.
The speakers started at about 3:00. I didn’t keep track of all who spoke. I’ll just mention a few.
The first was a Muslim woman from Sudan who is a student at U of M. She decried all those who wanted her to fit in their prescribed boxes. But she doesn’t fit – being a black Muslim defied expectations. She said she doesn’t want to and shouldn’t have to fit in defined boxes.
A couple politicians spoke, remarking on the resistance of the last year and the work still to be done. Don’t look at the crowd and think we’ve got this. The march – and your involvement – must continue until at least November.
A speaker told her story of being a survivor of domestic violence. After suffering a few years of abuse she left. Her ex-husband began stalking her. He’s now in jail and threatening to kill her and her children as soon as he gets out. She talked about domestic violence statistics and the work that needs to be done. She made an important point: We should be teaching our youth the red flags of abuse. She wished she had known them before she married this guy. He surely showed signs ahead of time that she didn’t know how to recognize.
An Asian woman talked about how she is seen as little more than a sex symbol. To many men Asian women are sexy, more so than white women, and that sexy part is all these men see.
The crowd size was pretty good, a nice turnout. Here’s an attempt at a wide-angle view of the crowd:
Close to 4:00 I decided I was getting too cold, even though there were only two more speakers.
Daily Kos has several posts (five so far – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) about events elsewhere across the country. These posts include photos. Estimates of crowd size say many exceeded last year’s events. A few that look to be quite large are New York, Asheville, NC, Washington, DC, Cincinnati, and Austin. The march in Missoula, MT was led by indigenous women. I rarely read Kos comments, though I did this time to see more pictures.
There was a table at the Ann Arbor event to allow people to make their own signs. I didn’t make one, though I enjoyed reading the signs around me, some of them quite clever. Here are a few I saw in person and online:
A certain person seems to exhibit all of the seven deadly sins.
“I’ve seen smarter cabinets at Ikea.”
“Does this ass [photo of the nasty guy] make my country look small?”
Held by a child: “I said ‘s**thole’ and lost privileges for a week!”
“Elect a clown, expect a circus.”
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