Mass Civility Breaks Out in Everyday Ramblings

This was before the rain got to a steady soaking chord and made it difficult to get decent pictures. I was right in the middle of the staging area and all by myself because there were so many people there I could not find anyone I knew. That was kind of cool in a way to think oh look there are all these thousands and thousands of people that I don’t know that think enough like me to come out on this nasty day to stand together in the street and roar.

I talked to strangers, I read signs, I listened to conversations. People were telling each other what the most important issues to them were. There was someone further up the street with a small tree on their head with white lights on it. Of course there was signing. And very wet dogs.

It was mind-blowing as we had close to 100,000 people. Folks parked a long way off or took public transportation and walked in. In the soaking rain!!! Soaking cold rain, even geared up my hands and feet were cold after a couple of hours.

Every time a helicopter hovered everybody yelled and waved. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a crowd person but it was an astonishing display of mass civility and good cheer. (In a concerned anxious sort of way.)

My favorite sign (I mentioned this on Zipster’s post) was Your Hand May Be Big but My Heart is Bigger.

But there were so many good ones, all so heartfelt.

When I got home I looked at the New York Times page with pictures of sister marches all over the world. Oh my gosh. I cried.

As people all around said, “This is only the beginning”. We must engage. To do that knowing that there is so much support is a wondrous thing to keep us focused for the long fight ahead.

Here I also think the fact that we all had been trapped inside for 7 days with the snow and ice made the just plain being out and about together thing so touching, the ability, the sheer practical ability to do that.

Anyway, it was very cool, I am glad I went, and I am determined to find my way to some sort of engagement going forward.

On a personal note it was quite an emotional day for my family as it was the second anniversary of our sister’s (and mother and grandmother’s) death. She was the firebrand fearless activist in the family and Miss E. and her mother managed to get together some buttons from the Women’s Movement in the 60’s and 70’s and send them to Washington with some friends going to the march there.

I marched for her as well as for all of us and in particular Miss E., who marched in Seattle.

What an incredible lesson in civics this was for this young people. Wow.

Last updated January 22, 2017