Women's March

A bunch of us got together yesterday to make signs for the women's march. One of our group even made us hats. We were ready for today's march in downtown St. Louis!

We all had different plans for how to get downtown and we hoped to meet up once we got there. John was kind enough to drive me and two of my friends, as their apartment is near the area where we marched. As it turned out, there were so many people at the march that none of the five small groups from yesterday's sign making session found each other. And that was just as well because it would have been hard to keep up with a group that was more than three or four people. Above is me and my friends Cathy and Anne. 

And now for some signs. There were SO many good ones! I saw a picture of this gem last night on facebook. The woman who made it said she used some old poster board and an old dashboard reflector cover. Clever! During the march today I saw the actual sign—it was like spotting a celebrity!

I like this attitude.

There were quite a few grandmas out there. I loved this sign, which I saw a few times in various forms.

And even though I'm not a Star Wars fan, I still like this attitude.

Being a Statue of Liberty fan girl, this one was one of my favorites.

Nobody was shy about using female anatomical lingo puns in their signs.

There were a lot of men at the march. And they had some great signs. (Although I'm not sure what happened to his Q.)

 This guy was popular, for obvious reasons.

 And how can anyone argue with this sentiment?

There's no great sign in this photo, but I like the image.

There were some signs that channeled anger, like this one.

And this one too. (This was my original idea for my sign. It was hard to choose what to say because there are so many options, sadly.)

Not surprisingly, there were Hamilton-themed signs. (In homage, I wrote "Rise Up" on the back of my own sign.) Here's the first one.

And another. (Naturally, I had a quick Hamilton bonding moment with each of these people after taking their photo.)

 And my final Hamilton-related sign of the morning.

We marched from Union Station to the Gateway Arch. Once at the Arch, there was a rally. And what sign should I see while we were standing to listen to the rally? My favorite Statue of Liberty sign that I'd seen on facebook the night before!

The Arch was a gorgeous setting for a rally. The weather was clear and in the mid-60s. It felt like a spring day.

I found this photo on facebook. I'm guessing it was taken from a drone, as there were lots of drones flying overhead all morning. (News reports estimate the crowd between 11,000 and 13,000 and they also said that there were zero incidents of violence. Having been there, I can say that not only did I not see any violence, but everyone was overly polite to each other.) You can see the Arch in the background, and the bottom of the photo is Union Station, which means that this shows the entire march route of about one mile, packed with people.

It truly was a privilege to participate in this historic event. I was here in St. Louis, but because I knew that millions of people around the world were doing the same thing at about the same time, it definitely felt like we were part of something bigger than the huge march we had here. Now my next step is to convert my anger and anxiety into action. Who's going to join me?