Samo students participate in Women's March

On Jan. 20, Donald Trump, former President-elect, was sworn into office. On Jan. 21, an estimated 4.2 million people across the country took to the streets in protest of Trump and his policies, as part of the Women’s March.It was the largest single day demonstration in US history, according to political scientists from the Universities of Connecticut and Denver. The main demonstration in Washington D.C. had an estimated 500,000 marchers, while sources estimate that a record-breaking 750,000 people attended the Women’s March in Downtown Los Angeles. By the Tuesday before the march, only 92,000 people had signed up, so organizers were predicting that around 100,000 people would be in attendance, according to LA Weekly. This turned out to be a massive underestimation when somewhere between five to seven times that size marched on that Saturday morning. Many Samo students were among the hundreds of thousands in attendance.The sea of people that flooded Downtown LA consisted of marchers of all ages. Energetic teenage Angelinos paraded around voicing concerns of the youth and their futures. Infants sat upon the shoulders of their mothers and fathers waving their signs giddily above the crowds; some arrived in strollers and cradled small signs on their stomachs that they did not even have the strength to hold with their own arms. Grandmothers and grandfathers graced the streets with their own lifetimes of experiences that had driven them to show for the march. These men and women were marching for the same issues that were causing controversy when they were young. Many families arrived at the march with three generations in attendance. Though the initial plan was for marchers to begin at Pershing Square and end at City Hall by 10 a.m., this planned circuit of streets was so packed that protestors overflowed into side streets and shut down more of Downtown LA than expected. Cars were trapped in the middle of streets and were forced to wait until there was clear space on the road. Some drivers took out their phones to document the making of history and others honked their horns in solidarity. The LA Metro trains were a very popular source of transportation that day, and all train fares were free. In the morning, thousands wedged themselves into train cars with little room to move on the way downtown. At the end of the march, the main Metro stations in Downtown LA were densely packed with people trying to leave. The platforms next to arriving and departing trains were just as condensed as the streets down which people had been marching. By 11 a.m., the streets from Pershing Square to City Hall were so gridlocked that the plan to march to City Hall was basically admonished; marchers, once in the middle of the crowd, had no choice but to stand still in the dense throngs and hordes. In the thick of the march, the only way to move about was to force one’s way through, and a person trying to find open space had to push their way through many, many blocks of congested people. There were speakers both at Pershing Square and City Hall, including Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis, Senator Holly J. Mitchell and many other politicians and women’s and civil rights activists. Other non-official speakers stood atop bus stops or high steps with megaphones shouting chants to spark nearby crowds. March-goers also sported a very diverse array of signs with different messages. Many of them were pro-women’s rights, but the majority were anti-Trump slogans such as “this pussy grabs back” and “Respect existence or expect resistance.” Some other pun-intended signs included slogans such as “Girls just want to have FUN-damental rights,” and “It’s time to ovary-act.” Many of these signs instantly went viral through photos shared over social media. Many similar viral posts all pictured elderly women holding signs that read, “I can not believe I still have to protest this s**t.” Another viral photo pictured an infant boy with a sign hanging around his neck that read, “I [heart] naps but I stay WOKE.” Protesters used the making of signs as a means of expressing themselves and their beliefs and in many cases this was a true contest of creativity. Regardless, the turnout nationwide for the Women’s March was larger than the organizers ever fathomed. This powerfully and efficiently brought our current, pressing social issues to light everywhere, including countries other than our own. The march made an impact worldwide and empowered so many people of all generations to quickly take action and join the fight against the increasingly prevalent misogyny and racism and the rampant normalization of injustice.