MARCHING ON WASHINGTON, PART III

    Last Saturday over a million Americans gathered in Washington, DC to resist the new President.
Since then, we've seen the photos, signs, and comments of friends who participated in the women's marches all over the world.  Former Miamian, Nan Deardoff-McCain, was protesting in the Hague with her family while Grove-born Ben Burns drove to Greensboro, NC, to do his part.
Here are more of last week's photos,


     As Trump was taking his victory lap in Friday's inaugural parade we were having a raucous rally nearby.



     The Women's March on Washington began the next day at the Florida Congressional Breakfast.  3000 showed up for muffins and coffee. Orlando's Val Demings woke us up with a stirring speech. She encouraged us to yell, "(What do we want?) WOMEN'S RIGHTS NOW!" loud enough to wake up the Angry Kid in the White House. The former Orlando chief of police is now a member of Congress. We need more leaders like her.
    
   Senator Bill Nelson did the Gator Chomp with our friends from Gainesville.  Florida's only Democratic Senator -the congressman who spent six days in space- will be 75 in September.  Maybe Val can replace him someday.
     After the two-hour pep rally we stepped out into the cold to march on Washington. Here is some of what we saw in the radiant crowd

The P-word was on many signs.  It was a wonderful thing how participants took the rude word the President used to brag about molesting women and they made it their own. Pink Pussy Hats were in abundance.  I'll be wearing mine for years.

There were quite a few kids in the crowd too.

We came upon a lively debate between the the pink hats and the Trumpsters in front of the Lincoln Memorial. As the greatest President looked out from his chair this young man kept saying things like , "No more Immigrants", "Obama ruined America" and "We're living in a Mexican nightmare".  At least they kept it somewhat civil. Another man described Francesca and I (we were wearing pussy hats proudly)  as "haters at a breast cancer march".

   We thank "we girls" and everyone who took the time to participate in last Saturday's marches.
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One More Thing:
   The Mexican-American group, La Santa Cecilia, was in concert at the UM last night.  The lead singer, Marisol Hernandez, at one point lamented the election of our new President and how he attempts to vilify Mexicans and others.  She said.


Our next song will be "Strawberry Fields".  I doubt that John Lennon was thinking about the Central California fields where most strawberries are grown, but if you've ever been there, you know that Mexican immigrants do the work.  As we sing please think about hands that harvest the food you eat.  Many of them are those Mexican and people from other countries. They deserve your love, appreciation and respect."

If you'd like to hear Marisol sing it, the link is 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkNv5Y1_Q4c

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