Washington postmarch
by Tom Sullivan
Women’s March, Asheville, NC.
The numbers for Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington and sister marches across the country were stunning. Postmarch, lets’s review how we got here. The Los Angeles Times profiled the organizers. Like many, Teresa Shook was stunned by the November 8 presidential election results:
She decided to do something about it.
The next night, with some help from friends online, the retired attorney and grandmother living in Hawaii created a Facebook event page calling for a march on Washington after Trump’s inauguration. Before she went to bed, she had about 40 responses. When she woke up, she had more than 10,000.
New York fashion designer Bob Bland jumped in to coordinate other similar efforts and …
… recruited three longtime, New York-based activists to be co-chairs of the national march: Tamika Mallory, a gun control advocate; Carmen Perez, head of the Gathering for Justice, a criminal-justice reform group; and Linda Sarsour, who recently led a successful campaign to close New York City public schools on two Muslim holidays.
Like I wrote, “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” are five words have gotten me into all kinds of trouble. Shook too. She did something with her idea. The other women had the organizing chops to make it happen. And happen it did, in a big way. The Los Angeles Times caught up with Teresa Shook on Saturday:
Did Shook foresee this all culminating in Saturday’s march? “I hoped but no,” Shook said. “That night I just did it because it made me feel better in the moment. I hoped that people would get on board.”
With a D.C. crowd estimated at 500,000 and more than 600 marches around the country, clearly they did.
Marching, good. organizing, better. Speaking up, good. Running for office, better. Registering, good. Voting BEST!! #MakeAmericaSaneAgain!— Michael A. Nutter (@Michael_Nutter) January 21, 2017
Now the trick is to sustain that energy and to keep it focused. Shook had an idea, but it took trained organizers to turn that idea into a worldwide event. That takes commitment and skills in addition to passion. Let’s hope we all have a longer attention span than President Trump. Long enough to acquire the skills it will take to overcome the next four years of #alternativefacts .
And now we return you to Trump Propaganda Minister Kellyanne Conway directing the Alternative United States Marine Band.