After Trump’s oath, angry New York women take to the streets
A day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered at the Washington Women’s March, with 673 sister marches showing solidarity around the world. The Women’s March was created to protest several political and social issues that Trump’s presidency poses for millions of United States Citizens.
On January 13th, Congress voted in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act, potentially leaving millions of people uninsured without a backup plan to replace the law. Recently, Trump’s pick for the head of the Education Department, Betsy DeVos, expressed a free market philosophy towards education during a senate hearing, essentially supporting the use of public-school money to pay for alternative academic opportunities.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. With the way things are headed for Americans, people took to the streets to express their anger and concern.
Subways were packed and streets were blocked as over 400,000 New Yorkers marched through midtown on Saturday.
Demonstrations began at noon from 47th street between first and second avenues all the way to Trump Tower on fifth avenue. Onlookers watched as thousands of demonstrators made their way past grand central terminal, singing along to Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive” while many adorned pink hats as a symbol of support for the women in America.
A woman danced around while showing support to fellow marchers from the sidelines. Juana, a teacher in her late 50’s expressed her joy at participating in the march, though she did not share the same feelings for the new President that just took office. She went on to explain her reason for attending stating matter-of-factly “I am a woman, I am Black, I am a teacher, and I was an illegal immigrant. This is what brings me here.”
Farther down the congested line that marched down to Trump Tower, a healthcare activist and physician, Dr. Sapphire Man-Ahmed stood out amongst the crowd while wearing a medical coat with writing scrawled across it urging people to unionize and help those in poverty.
“I am feeling that America is getting the medicine it needed to wake up because for 400, 600 years, racism and White supremacy has dominated this society” she said before explaining why she was marching. “I am participating because the platform was developed by women to protest all the different things like human rights and justice. Healthcare is an issue. The richest country in the world, we are auguring over who can get healthcare, while Cuba has been providing healthcare for decades. It’s ridiculous.”
A 24-year-old theater director also marched alongside his friends, wearing colorful beads around his neck and a floral lei. When asked how he felt a day after the inauguration, he spoke “It was horrible right? I sat there knowing we were turning a page to the spookiest chapter of my life. But I’m here at the rally right now and thinking there’s this many people around so many cities around the world, is the most exciting thing.” He spoke of his mother and grandmother lovingly when discussing his attendance at the demonstration. “They’re the best women I know in my entire life. So obviously, this is one for them. I’m also the son of a homosexual father, and as a second-generation homosexual to think that we now have an administration that doesn’t want to recognize gay marriage, is horrible. Also, I believe in our planet and intersectional solutions to problems.”
Now that America faces losing access to healthcare and having their civil rights stripped, citizens, especially women must be more politically vigilante than ever. “We have to organize ourselves. We have to join local grassroots organizations. We can’t sit at home anymore” Juana said, with resolve in her voice. The young theater director believed that “people should not back away from their identities. They need to embolden them and they need to stand together. We need to support each other and get bolder in our colors and stronger in our solidarity.”
Even when facing the gravity of the sociopolitical atmosphere in the United States, citizens marched happily, determined to do whatever it takes to survive the horrors of President Trump’s four years in office. With International support as seen from Saturday’s sister marches, President Trump is being sent a very powerful message of how distasteful he is seen.
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