equality | Wanderlust & Wonderment

January 20, 2018

I’m always amazed at the cleverness of the signs at protest rallies and marches. I went to the Women’s March in Chicago again this year with my husband, and we met up with some friends from the western suburbs. I had planned to make a sign this year but due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to. So I put on my pink hat and we took the Blue Line (metro train) downtown.

Absolutely hideous selfie of me and Dale on the train

Three like-minded women across from us, also signless!

Three generations of marching women – the baby was simply adorable!

We found our friends quickly when we got downtown, in spite of the crowds, because my friend Sandy had made a sign on fluorescent green poster board that she had posted on Facebook – it was easily spotted!

Sandy with her bright sign

The atmosphere this year was one of great camaraderie and hope, although tinged with more anger this year after enduring a year of Trump. Last year there was more humor in the signs, while this year the signs were clever but more on message.

The woman holding two of these signs is an artist who designed the signs.

This year, we actually got to see and hear what the rally was about. Because three of our party were a young family, we entered the family area. We watched the rally on a large closed-caption screen, while just to the west of us the actual stage was visible from the side.

The only problem with the rally was that it was too long. It had been set to begin at 11:00 and end at 12:30 (one and a half hours already being too long, in my opinion), when the march would start. However, the rally went for nearly two hours! There were too many speakers, many repeating the same message we’d heard several times already. At least the weather was decent (God granted us nice weather for both last year’s and this year’s marches! Could he be on our side??). However, it was still only in the 40s and my gym-shoe-clad feet got cold from just standing there. I started pacing to warm up.

We were informed that the number of people in attendance at the Chicago Women’s March this year exceeded last year’s total! This year there were about 300,000 attendees!!

Someone selling “Pussy Hats,” the ubiquitous pink hats many (including me) were wearing, just in case someone who didn’t have one felt left out.

In the background is the stage, where all the action was at the rally.

Finally, the march got underway at close to 2:00 pm! It took a while for us to get moving, since there was a bottleneck of people ahead of us converging from north and south along Columbus Avenue. We proceeded up Jackson Street to the sound of a rock band to Federal Plaza, where we were greeted by a group of drummers. That was the end of the march. Arriving there, we got to see lots of other people with their signs who were standing around as others kept arriving. I took photos of signs I liked when possible to do so without losing my group.

I didn’t take the following photos, but downloaded them from Facebook and decided to include them here. Both of them were in Chicago; the one on the left is of another friend of mine (on the left) who attended the march with two companions, although we didn’t run into each other.

Finally, I am including the best sign I have seen so far – it was posted on Facebook and I don’t know who the woman in the picture is nor where it was taken.

This sign about sums it up! This is ultimately why we marched and why it was necessary. Resistance is NOT futile!

Frank Jansen at Dutch Goes the Photo! has a weekly Tuesday Photo Challenge.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. provided the inspiration for a concert I attended last weekend by Chicago Sinfonietta, an orchestra which celebrates diversity and aims to redefine classical music to attract a wider audience. The orchestra always has some sort of activity for patrons to engage in before the concert and during intermission.

Starting with an inspirational message by King or other African-American voices, people were invited to continue the “story” with one or two sentences following the original message on vintage typewriters.

Dr. King’s message here was about faith: “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

These handmade banners were designed by local women, who carried them in last year’s Women’s March on January 21. They were on display in the balcony lobby of the concert venue:

These, to me, are messages of hope, hope for a future of equality and the voices of women being heard as we embarked on the first year of the Trump administration.

Sometimes an outdoor decoration or a brightly set table at Christmas time can convey their own messages: The reindeer announce “Believe” and the table conveys an invitation of coziness and warmth. Both are messages of Joy for the celebration of Christmas.