We Don't Play. We March.

This may be one of those posts that sends my Facebook friend count plummeting, and I spent approximately three nanoseconds fretting about that before I remembered that those likely to go are the ones who can't stand to be friends with people who disagree with them politically anyway. So everything's fine. (Plus I give Facebook about three minutes a day anyway, which is about three minutes more than it deserves, so what difference does it make?)

So! I knew there was no way I was getting to D.C. for a third time in two months, so I thought the Women's March was a no-go for me. I was planning to spend my Saturday running 10 miles and then watching musicals to care for my mental health.

But then.

As if I wasn't angry/worried enough, I saw the news Friday evening that the White House website had experienced a bit of a culling, with casualties including pages about climate change, LGBT rights, healthcare, civil rights, etc, because heaven forbid the White House be the ones to remind people they have rights. So I was delighted to see an article scroll across my news updates about the Cincinnati Women's March on Saturday. Sold.

Gathering in the park pre-march. I was on the less-full
side. Also? These ladies were not the only grey-headed
folks in attendance. Senior citizens were well
represented.

The organizers originally planned for 3,000 people, but as of the article being published the response to the Facebook event was much higher than 3,000. By the time we all assembled on Saturday afternoon, word had gotten out pretty well--I've heard numbers between 12,000-15,000. Wherever it landed, the march was a mite bigger than anticipated. They had to extend the march route in a hurry once the folks in front got back to the beginning, only to run into people still leaving the park.

I don't know a lot about who was there, except what I saw: people of all ages, people of many races, people with physical disabilities, church groups, Girl Scouts, college students, women, men. People with bikes. People who arrived by bus and streetcar. One person who arrived too late to get parked and, being stuck in his car in the middle of marchers, turned off his car and climbed on top. People who were on their way somewhere else who got stuck when the roads were shut down and smiled and waved from inside their cars instead of ranting.

People who have hopes and fears and dreams and want to be heard. That's who marched in Cincinnati today.

Edited to add: in case you don't have every musical in the world memorized, the post title is a reference to The Sound of Music. You know, the show about these folks:

Just a reminder that the real Von Trapps fled in part b/c they refused to sing for Hitler's birthday. #SoundOfMusic

— Su Wilcox (@cheekysu) December 19, 2016