Marching on the Big Apple
Student reflects on experience during Women’s March in New York City
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to go to New York City to visit colleges, but while I was there, I also was able to participate in one of the hundreds of Women’s Marches around the country, and it was nothing short of amazing.
There were an estimated 400 thousand people in NYC alone, according to the New York Post.
Being surrounded by so many empowering people, not just women, but men with their kids, college aged kids, elderly people, everyone, was an experience unlike any other.
As I stood a block away from Fifth Avenue, beneath skyscrapers and helicopters trying to get photos for the news, between young boys holding signs that said, “Boys will be good humans”, and immigrants showing pride for their heritages, I realized that the march stood for much more than women’s rights (which are important, let me add). It was a march for unity; for justice for all kinds of people; regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or anything else.
At the same time, my 75 year old granny, Vesta Dajani, was in Washington DC for the March on Washington. I can’t even begin to explain how proud I am to call her my grandmother.
She and my aunt flew down to DC to again, fight for equal rights of all people, something that probably shouldn’t have to be protested, but whatever. Anyway, the second she stepped off of the plane, she said there were people holding signs and cheering for the women who flew from all across the world to stand up for fundamental human rights.
“We couldn’t actually march because of the amount of the people, it was supposed to go from the mall to the white house, but nobody could move,” Dajani said. “People eventually moved to side streets, they were spilling everywhere.”
Like the march that I went to in NYC, there wasn’t any arrests, it was peaceful, which I think is pretty fantastic. How great is it that millions of people around the world came together in protest against sexism, racism, homophobia and religious intoleration, and there wasn’t any violence.
“It was peaceful and happy, I didn’t hear anyone being rude or speaking in an ugly tone or anything like that,” Dajani said. “People said excuse me and thank you, and when you had to move, people leaned back as far as they could to try to let you through.”
I can’t really explain how proud I am to have participated in the march, it changed history, our kids are going to write DBQs on AP tests about this, and I’m gonna be like “kid, I was there!”
You don’t have to agree with the march, (which stood for things like equal pay, ending discrimination, protection of the environment and other things like that), and that’s fine, and I mean that.
I think everyone agree that it’s awesome that we live in a nation where we can protest and petition to try to create change if we don’t agree with something, that our president was elected by a vote (whether I like him or not), we have so many amazing freedoms in America, and I am so excited that I got to exercise my first amendment right with so many powerful women.
“The march was about so much more than women, it was about all Americans. It was about unity, equality and justice. It meant coming together, to represent everybody,” Dajani said. “The goals of the march were for everybody, it was a women’s march, but women’s values are human values. The women were fighting for everyone. The concerns were for immigrants, health care, building a wall, discriminating against a religion, reproductive rights, those things matter to everyone, not just women.”
