Standing at the Depot: Women's March

Back with a Barcelona post tonight or tomorrow I think, but first... The Women's March, NYC.

The view of Second Ave, about a block away from the start of the march (officially) with blocks upon blocks to the north and west feeding in.

I decided to make a quick weekend trek down to New York, where I had friends participating in the rally and march on Saturday. It was pretty stunning and inspiring. We arrived shortly before the rally proper was to begin, by which time NYPD was directing people to newly-blocked-off streets for overflow capacity. It took almost two hours to get down the one block between us and the start of the march proper, and when we got there it was clear why: overflow streets had been packed as far as you could see in both directions, funneling a massive group of people into the official march route (from 47th and 1st to 57th and 5th). My friend Liz, who had arrived early enough to be at the rally itself, took almost three hours just to get to Grand Central. (Though perhaps her encounter with Helen Mirren, who admired her homemade sign, made that an easier wait.)

Setting Grand Central as a meeting place was, perhaps predictably, a popular idea. Even so, this jam-packed room was not as crowded as the day was going to get.

What made this all the more stunning was the steady stream of people exiting, who had spent a couple of hours in the throng and had to be off to the next thing. Even with a pretty consistent outflow of people, the streets were packed. It was a hugely positive event, with a lot of intersectional politics on display, signs and chants advocating for women's rights as well as Muslim rights, immigrant rights, LGBT rights... it was pretty beautiful.

No Compromise With Fascists is a pretty good motto to have at all times! But now is a fun and good time to make sure we hang on to it!

Obviously the question is what comes next. Drawing 400,000 people out to a protest in late January (a mercifully mild day, but still) is a good sign. I'm hopeful that when it comes to specific action -- pressuring GOP congressional representatives and senators to retain the ACA, shutting down anti-constitutional and anti-American projects like the proposed Muslim registry, the sale of National Parks land for plunder and profit, thorough investigations of Trump's flagrant ethical and legal violations -- this translates into phone calls, letters, sit-ins, and small acts of protest to continue to protect the vulnerable until a less-venal administration comes into office. Obviously I'd also like to see activist victories leading to midterm successes, even with a tremendously unfriendly map, but we'll have to see what happens.

The view as we approached... a corner that was still a block away from the start of the march.

It isn't enough, but it's a start. Here's hoping that the passions of Saturday, and the quiet horror of the moderates who used to have a home in the GOP, can get us through a chapter that threatens to be very dark indeed.