The Women's March on Washington
In 1984, having received a Juris Doctor degree and having passed the bar exam, I stood in a courtroom in Brooklyn, NY, raised my right hand, and vowed to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I have never forgotten that vow, or the obligations of an officer of the court that I voluntarily assumed,
Yesterday I took a trip to our nation's capital, a city I have visited countless times, to uphold that oath.
I traveled with my friend K. Our bus left Long Island at 3:30 in the morning, destination: RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, and then to the Women's March. We were due to arrive in the district at 9:00, plenty of time to get to Independence and 3rd for the 10 AM rally.
Didn't quite happen that way. The bus stopped at the Chesapeake rest stop on I-95, and we were not alone. It was, quite remarkably, a sea of pink -- as if every bus headed to the March was in that parking lot. We hit a lot of traffic on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and didn't arrive at the Stadium until 10.
And then we walked from RFK up Capitol Street East, through a neighborhood known as Capitol Hill, towards the Capitol. Nice that the folks in the neighborhood were happy to see us, that the police and National Guard members treated us with respect and visa versa.
We reached the Capitol and headed to the Rally. It was so crowded on the Mall that we never got near the stage, or even a Jumbo-tron, and never heard any of the speakers or performers. But the energy of the crowd! The message of diversity and unity and democracy in action!
We first spotted these people at the Stadium, caught up with them at the Capitol:
Rumor has it that our thin skinned President wanted the names of these useful items covered up:
Foggy on the Mall. We could barely see the Washington Monument:
And so very crowded:
Cell phone service wasn't very good on the Mall, I think the cell towers were overburdened. But we did hear about the Washington Post article, that there were too many people on the Mall to do a proper march to the White House. That turned out to be misinformation, the march was merely re-routed. But a lot of us on the Mall succumbed to the rumor, and dispersed.
We headed back to the Hill, then back to the neighborhood. We stopped at a high school to warm up and use the rest rooms, and our hosts were so gracious. We picked up food at a local place called Al's Pizza, and then headed back to the stadium for the long bus ride home.
Others from our bus had different experiences, some finding their way to the stage area and seeing celebrities, some completing the march.
There were 500 of us all told, and not a single arrest.
This is what democracy looks like.
It's going to be a long 4 years.
Yesterday I took a trip to our nation's capital, a city I have visited countless times, to uphold that oath.
I traveled with my friend K. Our bus left Long Island at 3:30 in the morning, destination: RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, and then to the Women's March. We were due to arrive in the district at 9:00, plenty of time to get to Independence and 3rd for the 10 AM rally.
Didn't quite happen that way. The bus stopped at the Chesapeake rest stop on I-95, and we were not alone. It was, quite remarkably, a sea of pink -- as if every bus headed to the March was in that parking lot. We hit a lot of traffic on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and didn't arrive at the Stadium until 10.
And then we walked from RFK up Capitol Street East, through a neighborhood known as Capitol Hill, towards the Capitol. Nice that the folks in the neighborhood were happy to see us, that the police and National Guard members treated us with respect and visa versa.
We reached the Capitol and headed to the Rally. It was so crowded on the Mall that we never got near the stage, or even a Jumbo-tron, and never heard any of the speakers or performers. But the energy of the crowd! The message of diversity and unity and democracy in action!
We first spotted these people at the Stadium, caught up with them at the Capitol:
Rumor has it that our thin skinned President wanted the names of these useful items covered up:
Foggy on the Mall. We could barely see the Washington Monument:
And so very crowded:
Cell phone service wasn't very good on the Mall, I think the cell towers were overburdened. But we did hear about the Washington Post article, that there were too many people on the Mall to do a proper march to the White House. That turned out to be misinformation, the march was merely re-routed. But a lot of us on the Mall succumbed to the rumor, and dispersed.
We headed back to the Hill, then back to the neighborhood. We stopped at a high school to warm up and use the rest rooms, and our hosts were so gracious. We picked up food at a local place called Al's Pizza, and then headed back to the stadium for the long bus ride home.
Others from our bus had different experiences, some finding their way to the stage area and seeing celebrities, some completing the march.
There were 500 of us all told, and not a single arrest.
This is what democracy looks like.
It's going to be a long 4 years.
I got my fingers cross that in mid term 2018 the house and senate will change 180.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming you had photos but I couldn't get them to show on my lap top.
Coffee is on
You can't see the photos?
ReplyDelete