{"id":4907,"date":"2017-01-25T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=4907"},"modified":"2017-03-14T15:27:09","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T23:27:09","slug":"national-womens-march-takes-salem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/national-womens-march-takes-salem\/","title":{"rendered":"National Women\u2019s March takes Salem"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Stephanie Blair\r\nEditor-in-Chief<\/pre>\n
On Jan. 21, protesters around the world gathered in major cities to join in sister marches of the Women\u2019s March on Washington. Despite the thunderstorm warning, approximately 4,200 people gathered across the street from the capitol steps to join the Salem Women\u2019s March. Men, women, children and dogs filled the crowd holding up nearly as many signs as umbrellas.<\/p>\n
An hour long rally was held before the mile-long march began. Speakers, such as Gov. Kate Brown and Salem city councilor Cara Kaser, advocated to the crowd about LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights and health care reform, as well as other women\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n
Though the Portland march lost attendance due to racial tensions and a dropped NAACP endorsement, the Salem march\u2019s numbers were bolstered by hiring ASL interpreters for the rally and choosing a level march route.<\/p>\n
Those in attendance ranged in age; some marchers were unable to walk because they had yet to learn how, while others were restricted to wheelchairs in their old age. At the front of the rally, one such woman held a sign which read, \u201cProud to be 94 and \u2018nasty.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Haley Morris, a junior psychology major, was also in attendance. When asked why she chose to march, Morris replied, \u201cI think it\u2019s extremely important as the \u201cbuilding block\u201d generation to be involved in the national and global conversation, especially on topics of injustice and inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many signs at the event held messages such as, \u201cHate has no home here,\u201d \u201cHear our voice\u201d and \u201cWe must be vigilant, not vigilantes,\u201d which held to the goal of the march as set by the organizers. On the Facebook event page organizers stated that, while signs were welcome, no hate speech would be permitted.<\/p>\n
Political commentary and satirical caricatures, however, were rampant in the crowd\u2019s signs. Some held fairly general statements, for example, \u201cIt\u2019s not about politically correct, it\u2019s about mutual respect.\u201d Others were more pointed towards President Donald Trump, with signs reading, \u201cKeep your tiny hands off my healthcare!\u201d and \u201cMake America think again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, the crowd was smattered with pink: eared hats referred to as \u201cpussy hats\u201d and signs that read \u201cthis pussy grabs back\u201d in response to the president\u2019s comment made in 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me personally, I went to the march with less of an anti-Trump sentiment and more of a pro-people and pro-rights standpoint,\u201d said Morris. \u201cYou can argue about who you think is the best leader, but you can\u2019t argue over someone\u2019s human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was coordinated with the Salem Police Department and was entirely peaceful; no arrests and no property damage occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll in all, I think the march went great. Almost double the number of people expected to come showed up and marched and cheered and danced in the cold and the pouring rain,\u201d said Morris. \u201cI think we accomplished our mission to peacefully but assertively stand together in solidarity to show our leaders and the world that we will not back down or remain voiceless in times of uncertainty and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Stephanie Blair Editor-in-Chief On Jan. 21, protesters around the world gathered in major cities to join in sister marches of the Women\u2019s March on Washington. Despite the thunderstorm warning, approximately 4,200 people gathered across the street from the capitol steps to join the Salem Women\u2019s March. Men, women, children and dogs filled the crowd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":4929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}