Hmmm...the Women's March. Sorry to say the momentum is waning and infrastructure is crumbling. Now it is reasonable to assume and anticipate the number of protests would diminish due to utter exhaustion or disinterest because Trump's bad behavior has become so prevalent and normalized. The first year of his presidency there were protests practically every week. Last year I think there were three.
However, women's issues persist. Sexism and patriarchy continue. The president is still a rapist so I am very disappointed the Women's March has become challenging. I live in one of the most liberal states in the country. This shouldn't be happening, but it is human nature. We get tired of fighting all the time.
The first indication of falter was the town where I normally go for all protests including the nationally-promoted Women's March decided not to have it this year. Their public announcement stated this decision was due to how time-consuming and expensive it had become. Granted, they hold an hour's worth of rallies featuring speakers I doubt are free, they provide a shopping mall of non-profit booths and food options at the end of the march, supply toilets, buy licenses to block streets, police escort, and I'm sure cleaning up after nasty women who might not be very clean is a hellish job for a small group of people. I still wondered
how hard can it be with free advertising to gather a group of people together and just walk without all the extras? Later I heard the organization's infighting had gotten out of control. So the march for this small-ish town dwindled from 10,000 the first year to zero this year.
So we planned to travel a distance to the nearest city to participate in their march. We always considered how fun it might be to go to one of the huge marches. I immediately noticed something was wrong - no one seemed to know what time it started. One newspaper said one time, another website said another, and even the Facebook page couldn't get it right. I finally begged someone for information stating we were driving three hours to get there. If we get the time wrong we might miss the whole thing! After that was worked out, two days before the march it's cancelled! Someone was worried about weather. Really? Our winters are so mild, but if the east coast can march why can't we? People were not happy and some of them voiced their complains with photos of New York marchers marching in a snow storm.
I ended up driving alone in the opposite direction for an hour to a very small town holding a march. My protest buddy was unable to attend or rather, more than likely didn't want to drive two hours for a tiny march in a tiny town. I was determined not to miss it not knowing if other options would present themselves. It was a small, but enthusiastic group of people with no social boundaries. Ready for the weather, I had my pink women's umbrella. (No photos - I forgot my camera.) Then it started raining. No, pouring! Without warning, several people squeezed under my umbrella with me without even asking. WHOA! If I wasn't chemically sensitive I probably wouldn't have cared, but for someone with huge personal space boundaries I found it outrageously presumptive. I wanted to scream
If you want to use my umbrella then you should fucking buy it! I didn't.
I remained calm and persisted. The march started and I left the freeloaders behind. We marched with traffic which seems to indicate poor planning. People complained no one could see our signs if the cars were coming up behind us. My breaking point was the woman with the incredibly large dog she let shit on the sidewalk, didn't clean it up, and protesters marched right through it. No one could see it before stepping in it! Although I appreciate they even had a march, I couldn't wait to leave. I did appreciate the simplicity of the day without an organized rally and devoid of commercialized non-profit booths.
Disappointed in our state's options for women's marches, we planned to go to another big city in a neighboring state for theirs. They didn't even bother to have it on the actual day of the national Women's March. Isn't this supposed to be about solidarity? Instead it was held on March 1st or closer to International Women's Day. I took my voting-themed umbrellas:
The day started cloudy and overcast, but by the time of the march it was gloriously sunny! We wore our pussy hats and the protest umbrellas garnered attention and photo ops. There definitely was a different feel to this group. The protest signs were more defiant. People didn't seem as friendly. We must be in the city. Then we started hearing about their group's infighting. It seems African American women were offended that white women were organizing it. Transsexuals were offended by pussy hats and the previous year's it was announced pussy hats were no longer going to be allowed. Oops. I took the stance if anyone messes with my pussy hat they'll get their eyes scratched out and probably hit over the head with my umbrella. We were on edge which is probably not good in a big protest group. Now I know why this city has so many riots...
But no one announced any bans on pussy hats and although the protesters were mostly hat-less, there were quite a few with pink ears on their heads. Probably out of towners like ourselves. There was a protest llama...now that's different!
We hid painted rocks all over:
No one bought any of my umbrellas, but I did see another umbrella - a white umbrella with felt pen lettering nearly the exact same quotes I use. The artists probably thought I would never show up this far away. Just after I spotted her, she disappeared...hmmmm...I would have loved to have talked to her or at least taken a photo of her umbrella. They say imitation is the best form of flattery, but some view it as theft or plagiarism in fear of copyright laws. Heck, I stole the quotes I put on my umbrella so I can hardly criticize someone for being inspired by my umbrella idea! I had always looked forward to seeing other umbrellas that might have been clearly inspired by mine. I rarely do. I regret not chasing after her to congratulate her, but she disappeared quickly and I never saw her again.
It was a good day. The march through downtown was well-organized with a lot of police escort. Hopefully after November we won't have to have anymore OR maybe after November everyone will regain their motivation and stop fighting among each other. We all seem to be complaining too much. We are all so tired! Welcome to Trumpism.
