It was, by any measure, an extraordinary day for the United States.
An estimated 500,000 or more people in Washington, D.C., according to city officials. More than 100,000 in Seattle; nearly 100,000 in Portland; hundreds of thousands more in cities across the United States and even other countries. They all rallied Saturday to protest Friday’s inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, engaging in a movement that even drew about 150 people to an event in Vancouver.
Trump, it would seem, won the election fair and square, and he was inaugurated as is dictated by the U.S. Constitution. Yet, questioning the engagement of the protesters — as the new president has done — wrongly denigrates the demonstrations that took place Saturday as the United States celebrated its freedoms in a most vocal and peaceful fashion. Our civic duty does not end with an election; no, democracy calls for an engaged citizenry and an alert media that are paying attention when those in power least expect it, not simply during the election.
So it is that an idea conceived by a Hawaii grandmother as a women’s march to protest Trump grew into a widespread movement. Organizers started on the night of Nov. 8, when Trump was elected, and eventually coalesced several ideas into the Women’s March on Washington to be held the day after the inauguration. Leaders in numerous major cities picked up on the idea and added local events for those who could not make it to Washington, D.C. In several instances, the events morphed from marches into rallies because the crowds flooded the streets and made marching impossible.
At the signature event in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Sharon Brous told the multitudes: “Once it happens in a generation that a spirit of resistance is awakened. This is one of those moments. Our children will one day ask us, ‘Where were you when our country was thrust into a lion’s den of demagoguery and division?’ ” On Saturday, millions of people, including women, men, children, and those of different races and different creeds were making their voices heard.