“This is what democracy looks like!”
“My body my choice!”
“Disrespect my existence, expect my resistance!”
These were the cries of solidarity, feminism, and powerful women resisting President Donald Trump and the hate that has been normalized throughout his campaign and election.
This past Saturday, January 21, a group of students and teachers headed down to Washington, D.C. to march in the Women’s March on Washington, a march that will go down in history as being the largest political protest in the United States.
“We were overcome with a power to do what we felt in our hearts, to do what was right.” – Mia V. ’18
The marches were not limited to just Washington, D.C. or even the United States. There was an approximate count of 673 protests worldwide and, in fact, there was at least one protest on every continent, including Antartica! In total, it has been estimated that there were 2.9 million marchers protesting in the Women’s March worldwide, making it not only the largest political protest but also the largest one-day protest in the United States.
Attending the Women’s March was such an amazing experience that I know I, along with the 500,000 other people in D.C. will never forget. At one point during the march, our group of Hewitt students started singing songs of unity and acceptance such as Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”. Other marchers started to join in as well, showing unity throughout the large crowd of protestors.
One of the students who went with us to the Women’s March, Mia V. ‘18, stated how “we were marching to the beat of our voices: the voices of those who believe in human rights, who believe in equality, who decided to join the movement and fight for the rights of every living person, and for all those to come.”
It was incredible to see the huge turnout of women marching for equality among everyone and to just look back and see the hundreds of thousands of women in solidarity wearing pussyhats and shouting empowering messages demanding human rights. On the first day of his presidency, we showed Trump that we are committed to fighting for equality and we won’t let him complete his agenda without a fight.