OPINION – It began with five simple words typed onto a Facebook page: “I think we should march.”
So, they gathered in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York City and the National Mall in the District of Columbia.
They gathered in Paris, London, Sydney, Buenos Aires, New Delhi and Mexico City.
They gathered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Paradise Bay, Antarctica; Raleigh, North Carolina; Park City, Utah.
They gathered in St. George, and a lot of other places.
Read more: 1,400 attend Women’s March for solidarity
The numbers are all over the place, but even the most conservative estimates are that more than 2 million people put on their walking shoes and participated in Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington.
It was a result of those five words typed by a shaken Hawaiian grandmother named Teresa Shook the night after the election.
“I didn’t have a plan or a thought about what would happen,” Shook told Reuters by phone from the island of Maui, Hawaii, during an interview in early December. “I just kept saying, I think we should march.”
The next morning Shook, a retired lawyer from Indiana, had one response. She created a private Facebook event page and invited a dozen close friends.
By the following morning, her event had been shared to other Facebook pages and the response was mounting at a torrid pace, with supporters from Hawaii, the mainland and overseas.
It resulted in one of the largest one-day international protests, landing on all seven continents.
I had family and friends march in this powerful and empowering event – in Los Angeles, Denver, Washington, D.C., Park City and St. George.
I am proud of each and every one of them for their humanitarian hearts, social conscience and political activism and humbled by their courage.
Before they took to the streets, organizers of the march put together a statement of principles that includes:
- Accountability and justice for police brutality and dismantling the gender and racial inequities within the criminal justice system.
- Freedom from sexual violence.
- Ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee equal protection based on gender.
- Affirming that all domestic and caretaking work is work, even if unpaid, and that women — especially women of color — bear the brunt of that burden.
- The right to organize and fight for a living minimum wage for all workers, labor protections for undocumented and migrant workers and solidarity with all those exploited for sex and labor.
- Comprehensive reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigrant and refugee rights.
According to the American Association of University Women in 2015, women working full-time in the United States typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid.
Since 1994 it has been a struggle to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which is repeatedly the target of conservatives who try to strip it down and eliminate provisions to protect gays, lesbians, transgender people, Native Americans and undocumented aliens.
The Equal Rights Amendment, which received major opposition from conservative and religious groups – including funds and manpower from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to fight ratification – sits just shy of being implemented. The ERA, by the way, was first introduced to Congress in 1923.
What is also at hand here is labor protections to prevent workers from becoming enslaved. That means humane wages and rights, which we all deserve no matter who we are or where we come from.
Human rights know no borders or affiliation. When you recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the last line reads “with liberty and justice for all.” It does not say “with liberty and justice for all white males with an income over $150,000 a year who are members of a mainstream Protestant church and vote Republican.” The “all” is, was and forever shall be all-inclusive.
I have a wife and I love her with all of my heart. She is my partner. She is not my subordinate. She is not my possession. She is my equal in every way.
I view her with respect and admiration because I know how hard she has struggled over the years because of good ole boys who make all the decisions in the workplace. I know the personal struggles of women dealing with misogyny.
I stand in 100 percent support of my wife and my sisters who took to the streets across the nation and overseas because, as stated by Hillary Clinton in a speech long ago, “Women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights.”
Ed Kociela is an opinion columnist. The opinions stated in this article are his and not representative of St. George News.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews, @EdKociela
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.
Ed, would you still be 100% in support of your sisters if your mom had an abortion?
Good point 42214…
In addition, nobody is reporting the 60-75 protesters that were PAID to protest.
A couple of individuals that were spoken to said that thet were able to make some extra money to carry anti-Trump signs. They also mentioned that they saw several dozen other individuals at the location where they signed up to be paid get coached on what they were to say (yell).
Now who pays protesters? It surely ain’t Conservatives. Lots of us knew that this was going on.
This is just the tip of the iceberg folks…..
The “BLM” movement was also completely fabricated by wealthy elitists looking to stir up trouble and social unrest–with many paid organizers and protesters to “seed” the “movement”. BLM has done nothing but make the ‘black community’ look very very bad. The feminazis with their vulgar signs and loud obnoxious displays make any sort of women’s movement look very bad as well.
“Comprehensive reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigrant and refugee rights.”
You know I have no problem with this women’s rights stuff, but why do they wanna incorporate illegal aliens and “refugees” into their agenda. There comes a time when you gotta look out for your own people first and foremost. Trucking in all these foreigners and moslems and 3rd worlders just sets the bar lower and makes life a little worse for everyone. If they wanna entangle their women’s stuff with the agenda of globalists then they are the enemy in my book.
They are spouting off so many reasons why they are protesting that they don’t know why they are protesting.
I keep hearing this… we know exactly what we were protesting or marching for. Each person out there marching had a reason that is personal to them and it’s unfortunate that people like you can’t close your mouths and open your ears and hearts long enough to hear what we had to say. The march was overwhelmingly positive and made me feel a hope I haven’t felt in a long time. I sincerely hope you can find something that makes you feel that way in these trying times.
I’m glad it worked for you. Now that i know everyone had a personal reason, it explains why there were so many different answers to the why are they marching.
I lost hope in the country 8 years ago, so I didn’t understand the march, because I got hope for the country when Trump became President.
Hope that I could a job and not passed up because an immigrant or an illegal immigrant, or another race other than white would get hired before me because it would be labeled as discrimination to not hire them. Plus companies get tax breaks for hiring minorities. That’s what Obama did, he divided and discriminated and now I have a chance.
I have skills but I was the wrong race until Friday. Let’s be fair to everyone
Women are strong, we are here to do things men can’t. But if you want to be a man and equal to a man then you’ve taken away how much they need us. It’s not about being equal to a man, it will never happen because we already know we can do things they can but they cant do what we can do. Humble yourself and let a man be a man and lift him up and you be a woman and you be awesome!
The problem is there is not a lot of God fearing men out there, and when that happens God will raise a woman. There will be a woman President and it will be a fearful day because that means there was no man worthy enough and God raised up a woman. The problem isn’t woman equality the problem is woman can’t find a God fearing man.
I challenge all of them to fund their own abortions. And I challenge all of them too keep their front doors open for anyone to come in to their house.
I watched some of the violent protesters the night Trump was sworn in. Breaking windows and burning a limo. I think Ed’s articles should be called “Over The EDge”. I also read about the paid protesters. People read about something on facebook and take it as the gospel without even checking it out. Some of those young people don’t even know what they are protesting. It’s just something they were told to do, by and idiot. Or should we say EDiot.
over the edge, lol
r2d2 suffering from a reading comprehension problem. Ed’s piece is about the women’s march on Saturday. It was the largest day of protest in US history and there were zero arrests reported. You won’t learn this on Fox news or Breitbart r2d2; you’ll have to broaden your information sources.
Bender – Is the leftwing New York Times one of your information sources? The website “Women of the World” is affiliated with the New York Times. In a January 20th article, reporter Asra Q. Nomani wrote:
“Soros has funded, or has close relationships with, at least 56 of the march’s “partners,” including “key partners” Planned Parenthood, which opposes Trump’s anti-abortion policy, and the National Resource Defense Council, which opposes Trump’s environmental policies. The other Soros ties with “Women’s March” organizations include the partisan MoveOn.org (which was fiercely pro-Clinton), the National Action Network (which has a former executive director lauded by Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett as “a leader of tomorrow” as a march co-chair and another official as “the head of logistics”). Other Soros grantees who are “partners” in the march are the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.”
http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/01/20/billionaire-george-soros-has-ties-to-more-than-50-partners-of-the-womens-march-on-washington/
sounds like a conspiracy, lol. soros is a zionist
Henry, appears you have the same reading comprehension issue as r2d2. Maybe you two could join a support group? Ed’s article concerns Saturday’s women’s March. Why you wanna be telling me what Soro funded? What’s your point? Did you get all wound up watching Hannity and listening to Rush and now you gotta stick it to the “libruls” somehow?
Bender, my mistake to assume that you were intelligent enough to grasp the obvious. Let me connect the dots for you.
Instead of an innocent little grandmother being the primary organizer beyond this women’s march, it was a bunch of the standard leftist advocacy groups that were funded by George Soros. The source is via the New York Times, not exactly a bastion of conservatism.
But bottom line, it really doesn’t matter if the marchers were Soros induced or if their hearts just overpowered their brains. The women’s march was just a Kumbaya moment for anti-Trumpers like you who can’t accept the fact that he won the Presidency.
I said the night he was sworn in. I know it’s not the same protest. You bone head. Learn to read.
Are we replying to the same article? My understanding is that a piece with “Women’s March” in the title is probably about the Women’s March.
That’s been the focus of the majority of the comments; you’re just too slow-witted or delusional to pick up on it.
The Women’s March was about abortion more than anything else. As time passes and women cry more and more about “equality”, it becomes more and more evident that despite the euphemism called reproductive rights, the thirst for the blood of the unborn is insatiable. The women’s march confirmed that
The symbol for pro-abortion activists should be the good ol’ coat hanger.
It was hard to tell what it was about since they spouted off so many other random things. But Hillary was for killing a baby, so what you say makes sense.
But no one is taking that choice away. Man! that’s hard to say since the choice was before pregnancy. As for rape and getting pregnant, as hard as it would be mentally and emotionally to carry that baby, women are strong and there is always adoption. And a woman against abortion would carry the baby!
But anyways, back to what I was saying. Trump said abortion would be up to the states not federal. Oh! There goes the funding. All marchers donate to planned parenthood and fund your own unplanned pregnancy, killing baby rights.
I’m opposed to abortions in a moral context, but u gotta be pragmatic about it and realize that the world is becoming severely overpopulated–especially the 3rd world: asia & africa being worst case scenarios. I actually think the world needs a lot more abortions and birth control, and the Catholic church may very well be the church of Satan.
there are many woman fighting for their right to choose killing their unborn baby, are you suggesting more woman should make that choice? Jk I know you’re saying that.
Kids are tough to raise these days with all the corruption and God being taken out of everything….think twice about getting pregnant, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be! Enjoy your child free life! I love my kids and sacrificed my desires for theirs. I know my life would have been different without them. I would have had a life lol
Well I’m sure they’re all opposed to you
One last Gasp for George Soros…..but too late…The Trump Train is running and not even at full steam yet
Good to see Ed getting in touch with his inner woman
Madonna and Ashley Judd gave great credibility to the March and movement:)
I still have no clue what are really their issues. Ask 10 different supporters and you’d likely get 10 different answers.
Ask them to explain their answers and substantiate with proven facts and you’d get talking bullets or silence.
Reproductive rights? They need to elaborate, and again you’d get 10 different answers. Perhaps they mean abortion, free birth control and tax-free tampons?
I think most of this boils down to sour grapes, that their candidate didn’t win.
Had Hillary won, the pep-rally likely wouldn’t have occurred; they would have been fine having Hillary in the whitehouse along with her skirt chasing husband. Regardless of her efforts to silence the voices of many of Bill’s sexual victims.
To people who say ” The women’s movement marchers are just whiny and don’t even know why they are marching!” Well, I didn’t march, but I support anyone, who feels a need to object to demeaning behavior towards others and to retain the rights and services we have as US citizens and human beings in a peaceful way. The multitude of people marching did actually have various reasons for doing so, and those reasons were legitimate for them. I don’t think it was meant to be a march for any one cause, but a multitude of causes that matter to each individual. Isn’t that the great thing about this country? That’s all I need to know. Some are against violence towards women and domestic abuse to anyone, some are for equal pay, some are for hatred towards minority and LGBTQ communities, etc. The point it, these are all people, they are all someone’s Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Grandchild, Spouse or significant other. They are all HUMAN and deserved to hold their beliefs out in the open. I personally, am against hatred, assault and violence towards any demographic, and I’m all for keeping my rights, weather that comes from a women’s perspective, as a citizen of this country or just a HUMAN perspective. Follow the laws, and Don’t take away the rights of the US citizens (whom are all human, last I checked) of this country. If you disagree with someone else, fine, but seek to understand the reasons, and don’t judge someone for wanting to raise awareness of their concerns, whatever they may be. I think the marchers and their large turnout , basically just proved the point that there are millions of people from many walks of life that are concerned for a multitude of reasons. Be part of a solution, don’t just claim that someone is a sore loser. A concern by someone else is their concern, it may not be your concern, but if you can’t understand that all people should have access to human rights, then you’re part of the problem. I see a lot of hypocrisy being thrown out there, that really puzzles me. Each side of the political spectrum have made questionable moral and ethical choices. For example, Several men cheat on their wives numerous times and seem to be lauded for it, while several from another side does so and it’s treated as anathema for choosing to forgive and to stay married. I consider this a personal matter, best dealt with by the parties involved. It’s easy for someone to throw shade and say they would do “this” or “that” if that happened to them, truth be told, you never know how you’d react until you’re put in that situation and have to deal with it first hand. We all have our moral compass to follow, some of us are much more forgiving of bad behavior than others it seems. I can only be in charge of my behavior and my choices. Please understand that bashing someone in a comment section, will have no effect on influencing anyone to change their moral compass, or their stance on a viewpoint they hold near and dear to their heart. I understand and realize this, do you? I appreciate that others will have their own opinion, I also know I will not agree with everyone and accept that. Best of luck to one and all, and I hope you all find your happy, just not at the expense of another human being’s right as well.
That’s great and I’d buy it if they marched before the election, but it was one day after inauguration so it’s about Trump being president. And they are just mad
Until Friday, I only knew I lived in America because I haven’t moved out of the country. But I was tired of Obama sending money to other countries. He got us in trillions of debt. I was tired of helping other countries when we have starving, homeless people and veterans right here in America. We have struggling families right here in America and Obama was sending billions of dollars to other countries. We have more people on assistance than ever before! Americans were forgotten!
I have hope with Trump that America and American citizens will be put first! Brown, black, white, yellow, red, woman or man, Americans will be first! And when your own country supports and lifts up its own people we get strong and that’s something to be proud about.
To all my women friends explaining the march to me: I have been taking care of my husband for 15 years, 6 of those years he was bed ridden, 3 times he was on his death bed, but I didn’t give up. Every time I nurtured him, gave him his meds, prayed for him, loved him, and I’ll be darned I nursed him to health. He will tell you, I never complained. He’s still disabled, but he walks around, he does what he can when he can, he is not bed ridden anymore. I was his spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical support. I did everything for him for years until he could take care of himself and I could go to work. We were even homeless for 11 months with 2 kids, (10&12 , they never missed a day of school and the got A’s & B’s). All this while he was ill and could barely move. My husband, even in his and my worst moments, he was my rock.
If roles were reversed, I know and he knows, he couldn’t have done the same for me. And that’s ok, because God gave me the strength and wisdom to endure.
We went from almost death, to life. We went from homelessness to 10 years later being homeowners (and I mean, we own our home).
When you can see with your own eyes there is no way that something can happen, God will make a way. That’s faith. I’m a God fearing woman
How many of you women would stand by your partner and best friend through the most terrible times?
You see, woman can do things men can’t.
My husband is my rock and I don’t want to be equal. I don’t want a penis.
I will add this: if the roles were reversed and I went through the pain and agony that my husband went through while being ill, I don’t think I’d been able to do it. I truly believe I would have made sure I died.
We both, individually, went through the same fire but went threw it with different purposes.
My husband is strong, God fearing man, and his love makes me a strong, God fearing woman.
The word equality is subjective.
I would not and I know I could not endure what he went through. And he would not and he knows he could not endure what I went through.
Woman have a special love, use it to lift people, including men, up. Not to be equal. We will never be equal. Woman are special.
For those of you that say how can you fear a loving God. The easiest way for me to explain it is you know God can cast your soul to hell so you fear going to hell and you don’t lie, cheat, steal, murder, covet, have idols and you do love God and put no one before Him and whatever other lesson you learn along the way in this life that God teaches you, you obey like a child to a parent.