I posted this diary very late last night and at the suggestion of a commenter, this is a re-post with some updates.
UPDATES:
Here is a strong contender for best sign.
Best DC March sign?
To keep the spirit of the March going, today I called my Senators and state legislators. My Dem Rep. Yarmuth is wonderfully blue and skipped the inauguration to march in Louisville.
I am going to call every day to keep the phones ringing, even though I doubt I will change the minds of Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.
Original Diary:
This diary is rough, but I wanted to get it published before it becomes irrelevant.
I decided in the weeks after the election to go with my mother to Women’s March on Washington. After Trump’s election we both vowed to get involved in real action, not only online petitions. She marched in Washington against the Vietnam War in 1967, when she was 18, and was ready to go back now that women’s rights are under attack. We got plane tickets and a hotel room in Baltimore and invited in our family to come. My sister and cousin agreed! It was my cousin’s first protest of any kind. Being early adopters, we ordered MARC train tickets for the train from Baltimore to DC, because the Amtrak was sold out, and also preloaded Metro cards in the mail. Turns out it was good to be prepared!
I flew from Louisville, Kentucky with my mother and eight other women to Baltimore on Friday. We met my sister from Providence and cousin from New Orleans, and we spent the evening preparing. We had cards with important phone numbers, small maps, and wrote phone numbers on our arms in case of arrest. We did not expect anything to happen, but prepared is best. My mother was tear-gassed back in the 60’s and ready for anything.
The march organizers told people to only bring tiny bags, or clear backpacks, and clear bags of food. I knew that was bullshit because there would not be enough police to create a perimeter or to check bags. Some ladies on Facebook were worried about wearing safety pins. I was like, dude, that’s crazy, no one is going to be looking at the safety pins, we will be on the street. Don’t take your rights away from yourself, make the police take things away. We took sensible sized purses, with the bare minimum plus water and snacks. Everyone at the March basically had the same, a few big backpacks, but I didn’t see anyone asked to throw things away or leave the March.
There were only two trains into DC on the MARC in the morning, the earliest at 7:50. We knew this would be too few and that the train would be very crowded. We cleverly (we thought), left the hotel at 6:30 and took an Uber to the train stop before the Baltimore airport to beat the crowd. First, there were not enough Uber/Lyfts. We had to order several, and then had too many. Luckily there were many women waiting for cab/ubers etc. outside the hotel, and we gave two women from Jersey a ride to the train station. Then, when we got the station, we found that the train was not stopping anywhere on the way to DC because it was filled up at the beginning of the line.
The next plan was to take an Uber to the nearest Metro and go into DC from there. It was a 35 minute ride to the Greenbelt metro station, and the lines outside the station were overflowing. The driver let us out on the side of the road leading to the parking lot because there was so much traffic. We went up, and had to wait about 20 minutes to get inside. Then, there was a huge line to get tickets. We were very happy to have the preloaded cards, so we could go right on, only a ten minute wait for a train. The train was great, partly because Metro opened early and added trains. Full of marchers. A group of women and a male friend with flowers in their hair, beautiful.
We got off at L’Enfant Plaza, one of the closest stations to the March. We then had to wait 20 minutes to get out of the station because there were so many people! It was stifling, but also great because people were chanting and cheering while we waited.
Inside Metro waiting to get onto street
It was about 9:30 when we got out of the station. We tried to walk up to Independence Ave, where the March was supposed to start, but the crowds were huge. Pussy hats EVERYWHERE. I wish I brought one! Crowd was majority women, but plenty of men. Also a lot of children, tweens, and a few strollers. No cell service.
We finally made it up to the 4th and Independence, and heard America Ferrera and Gloria Steinem. We couldn’t see, even the jumbotrons, but we could hear. They were both wonderful. Around 11:00, we got a bit overwhelmed by the crowds. I was a little afraid, because if anything happened, we could easily be trampled. We decided to leave the main March, and that took quite a while. We were shoulder to shoulder, and it was hard to get out.
We walked back to L’Enfant Plaza, and went down to the food court to get some lunch. A few places were open, and we waited about 30 minutes, not that long, to get a Philly Cheese steak. We were supremely lucky, because we got there right when a security guard opened up a men’s bathroom for women to use, because the bathroom lines were literally an hour long. There were not nearly enough porta potties because of the larger than expected crowd. We were very careful not to drink much after that.
After eating, we went back to just view the crowds and figure out what we wanted to do. We walked around the outskirts and had fun looking at signs and joining in cheers. “This is What Democracy Looks Like,” and “Whose Streets, Our streets.” My mother is sixty-seven and decided to leave at 2:00 to go back to the hotel. The March had not started at that point, and we heard that they weren’t going to do it because the whole route was filled up with people. She later said the train back out to Baltimore was full of Marchers, and they chanted and had a great time the whole ride back.
My sister, cousin, and I decided to walk on the outskirts and try to get up to the Mall. We found auxiliary marches on surrounding streets, again with crowds, we couldn’t get the through. Amazing energy! We then went further out of the way, and then up 14th street towards the Mall.
We made it up to the Mall about 3:00. We could get up to the Washington monument easily, which was great. There were fences, but you could get through easily, I couldn’t tell if people just opened the fences or we were “allowed” to be there.
Washington Monument
But people just kept coming and coming. I think this was the March, which had started late. Around the Washington monument, we found our first Trump people – a group of about 8 frat boys with trump hats and shirts. A few women were trying to engage them, which I knew was pointless. However, when walking by, I couldn’t resist yelling “Fuck Trump” in their faces. It was cathartic.
We went up to the Ellipse, where there was small fence (with openings) creating a barrier between it and the Mall, and a fairly large crowd. We hung out by the fence and watched the marchers come in, did some more chanting. “Whose House, Our House,” “This is What Democracy Looks Like.” We went inside the fence and decided to get up closer to the White House before it got more crowded.
White House from Mall
After chanting a bit more, we decided happily to call it a day and head to Union Station to get dinner.
But leaving the march might have been the best part. As we were walking down the street, a man was chanting, Her Body, Her Choice, and then all the women would chant back, My Body, My Choice. It was the most moving part of the event for me. We could also stand up on a small wall and look back at all the people, it was amazing. There was of course a huge line to get into the Metro, I learned later that they actually shut it down for a few hours because were so many riders.
Talk about climbing – we had to climb over small walls several times to get where we need to go. It was so crowded that people were taking shortcuts over walls and street barriers. I found out that I’m not nearly as good at climbing over barriers and walls that I thought I would be. Instead of jumping I was inching and getting muddy.
At that point, my feet were giving out. We went up to 3rd and G street and got an Uber to Union station. This was about 5:00. We had made a plan to meet my aunt and uncle at restaurant in Union station at 5:30, and it amazingly worked out. They were very seasoned marchers, having participated in the Vietnam protests in the 70’s and some since then. My uncle couldn’t get over how peaceful and nice the marchers were. We learned later there were no arrests, which was not surprising at all. Everyone was supremely kind.
Leaving the March, looking back
We got the 7:50 train back out to Baltimore. It was on time and we got seats easily. Train was full marchers. We got back to our hotel around 9:00, tired but so happy.
One thing I noted was that our Uber drivers and hotel shuttle guys were very unhappy about the March. I have no idea why, maybe there are more sexists out there than I thought. The first indication was our shuttle driver, who when we came in said, “You ladies better check before you go to the March, they are talking about shutting down the city because of violence,” clearly trying to scare us. I knew that was bullshit, some violent protesters on Inauguration Day is totally different from our peaceful march the next day. The Uber driver from the march to Union Station rather contemptuously said he never heard of people protesting a president before he did anything. Then our Uber driver home from the MARC train refused to admit he had increased business because of the March. When we got on to the airport shuttle to get the flight home, the shuttle guy, the same one as the day before, did not say a word. He was clearly pissed off. But, they did their jobs, which is all you can ask for.
I was amazed at the very light police presence throughout the whole day. There were no checkpoints, and I probably saw only 20 police officers total. They were super nice, and gave people directions. There were a very few national guard, and a few military trucks, but they weren’t moving, just creating barriers for security. When we needed to get out of the crowd we actually went up to the police cars because there was a little space to stand there.
All in all an awesome experience. We sent a clear message, and now must back it up. I am so glad I went, and so impressed by the WORLDWIDE marches, and the huge march in LA and Chicago, AND the smaller but awesome rallies everywhere in the USA!
This is the link to to original diary.
www.dailykos.com/...
Here are a few more pictures.
