Close to 10,000 demonstrators amassed outside the Loews hotel, where the gathering taking place, chanting and waving banners and homemade signs.
Philadelphia Metro
From his office on the 11th floor of the Wanamaker Building, Jeremy Niedt spent the morning looking down at the protesters – then made his way to the street to pass out free doughnuts to demonstrators.
“I kept looking out the window,” he said, adding that he wanted to help.
On Paine Plaza, much of the sign-holding, flag-waving crowd was middle-aged – hardly the angry anarchists of an earlier era. Many described themselves as concerned citizens who are alarmed by what they see as a radical shift in American politics. “In the ‘60s, people fought an illegal war. Now we're fighting an illegal president,” said Stephen Miller, 73, of West Mount Airy.
“I would not be alive if not for the Affordable Care Act,” said Ashley Vogel, 26, of South Philadelphia, who was struck by stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Jean Woodley, 73, of Mount Airy, said she hadn’t been motivated to march in 50 years, not since she participated in the March on Washington and in Selma, Alabama.
“Everyone who loves this country has to stand up. I am just appalled at what I see every day in the news,” Woodley said. “Everything I see I disagree with. You start a new job, you get the lay of the land. He just comes in and is creating chaos on every front. How much trauma can we stand?”
Trump’s attacks on people and policies are coming so fast and furious that it’s hard to keep up, let alone fit them all on one protest sign.
So many lies and threats to decency and democracy. So little poster board space.
Helen Ubiñas, Philadelphia Daily News Columnist