Women's March, Los Angeles, CA - 21 JAN 2017

Last Sunday a few friends were talking about the upcoming Women's March that was going to be held downtown from Pershing Square to City Hall. I told them I was part of The Last March for ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), the Gay Rights March on DC in 1993 and again in 2000. They said, you have to go to this march...let's do it! And we did. The march was to begin at 10:00 AM. Six of us with two wheel chairs and one walker, met in Long Beach near the beginning of the Blue Line Metro Station at 7:30 AM. Little did we know, this was hardly getting a head start. By the third metro stop, the trains were packed like a New York subway at rush hour. Yet, at each consecutive stop, a few more people, pushed into the car. Sardines in the can have more room than we did, on the long ride to downtown. The blue line ends on 7^th & Flower, five blocks from Pershing Square. When we got off the metro the crowd look like this: 

We got 3½ blocks before the street became a mass lump of non-moving people.

And there we stood for several hours.

 

They were expecting 80,000 marchers and over 750,000 people showed up wanting to make a statement.

 

Cheryl got these images:

And she got someone to snap a phone image of our group:

City Hall was about 12 blocks away, but every street in each direction was a mass of people. We undulated across town moving in small streams through a massive throng of people moving at a snail's pace. As the signs changed, we saw more and more political statements.

"Pussyhats" were everywhere, reclaiming the term as a means of empowerment.

Then there were more and more anti-Trump posters.

The Women's March Los Angeles had this official Mission Statement: "We stand together in solidarity for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health and our families - recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country. 
In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human right, dignity and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us. 
We support the advocacy and resistance movements that our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equality for all."
It was not billed as an anti-Trump rally, yet if you feel this President marginalizes women and embodies the opposite of protection of rights for all, then maybe, it is correct to call it an anti-Trump protest.

Several times each of us wanted to call it a day, except for Mary (in the electric wheel chair) who really wanted to make it to City Hall. Thanks to her, we pushed on and accomplished our mission. 

We finally heard a few speakers, but the crowd was denser (didn't think it was possible) and movement was next to impossible. We tried to move pass City Hall to see if we could find a break in the congestion. Squeezing through, we made it to where the streets were no longer barricaded.

And it wouldn't be California without boob man and a semi-naked painted lady.

We headed to Little Toyko five blocks away to find a place to eat. It was after 1:00 PM; with that many people any restaurant within miles, would be busy. After 45 minutes, we got a table and a much needed toilet break. Luckily, there was a metro station across the street. We took the Yellow line to the Red line to the Blue line, which took us back to Long Beach. Every station was packed. We got back to our cars about 6:00 PM, exhausted and exhilarated. We had done it!