100,000 people were expected, over 400,000 people attended. The march’s organizers put the tally at 600,000. It was incredible, we owned those streets! Again, thank you NYPD for doing an amazing job managing the situation. They couldn’t contain the crowds anymore, the masses swelled into all the side streets and marched up 5th Avenue to Trump Tower.

The organizers for the Women’s March on NYC were very smart to stagger out the marching times. We were suppose to march at 12.30pm, it sort of happened. Our group departed from our rendezvous point to march together but we never made it to our marching destination, the streets were too packed. After getting stuck for over 45 minutes on a side street leading to a park by the United Nations, all of a sudden a lot of people started to walked from 2nd Avenue to 3rd. We asked a cop what was going on and she told us, we can’t contain the crowd and we like everyone else changed course and took our “unofficial” marching route across 48th Street, walking up to 5th Avenue.

This was happening on a lot of streets from 42nd passed 50th Streets. The official route was to meet at 1 Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, a park by the United Nations, march down 2nd Avenue, across 42nd Street and up 5th Avenue. We were with the masses that stopped traffic and marched up 5th Avenue on the outside of the police barriers. You couldn’t stop us, we were marching no matter what and the size of the crowd wouldn’t stop growing. 79% of this city voted for Hillary.

As we walked over some of the chants that could be heard:

Women, “Our body, our choice.”

The men, “Their body, their choice.”

All of us, “Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets!”

You want to know what democracy is? What we did Saturday. It felt empowering being a part of the first wave of people estimated to be around 200,000 people to descend upon Trump Tower. We’re lucky we live in a country we we can express these views. You can openly protest and march which isn’t the case everywhere else in the world. This is one of the greatest things about this country – Freedom of Speech.

You want to know what also felt good? Seeing people who never protested or even pictured themselves protesting did it for the first time in their lives. This was Victor’s first protest march and he enjoyed it, said it was a fun energy. We know the fight for women’s rights, climate responsibility, civil rights, etc. is just beginning. Make sure you make your voices known to your congressional representatives, calling their office is more effective then petitioning. We have to stop hating on the Trump supporter. Hate the guy himself, he’s a douchebag. There are a lot of Trump voters that aren’t racist and the issues we have in common we need to fight to preserve and improve. We know of some hardcore Republican Dads that stayed home with the kids so their wives could attend the Women’s March. Liberals were not the only ones out yesterday.

We didn’t post pictures of our friends to keep their privacy. One of our friends D, brought her 2 month old which was cool, it meant a lot to her to attend and she worried about it because her son is so young. But all good, she got to march, the kid slept and the crowd was pleasant.

Women, men, children of all races, religions and sexual orientations attended. Even some dogs came. The energy was alive, uniting, peaceful, and empowering. I hope it becomes a movement and it’s not just a moment where things and fade out.

We the people have the power, strength in numbers. Bernie Sanders said it best on his Facebook post about the Women’s March, “President Trump, you have made a big mistake. By trying to divide us up by race, religion, gender and nationality you have actually brought us closer together. Black, white, Latino, Native American and Asian American, gay or straight, male or female, native born or immigrant we will fight bigotry and create a government based on love and compassion, not hatred and divisiveness.”

As the masses flooded the streets getting closer to 5th Avenue moving towards Trump Tower you could hear our voices,“This is What Democracy Looks Like!”

Stay informed and take action:

https://www.wall-of-us.org/

https://www.womensmarch.com/100

http://www.100daysofresistance.org/

News clips:

NY Times article about march. 

NBC news clip.

“This is What Democracy Looks Like!”