Saturday January 18th was a day people marched for justice all over the country. I attended the Seattle People’s March. I arrived at the rally at Cal Anderson Park in time to hear chants of, abortion is health care before governor elect Bob Ferguson spoke. Bob Ferguson was Washington’s attorney general prior to being elected governor in November. He was the first state AG to sue Trump and promised to do so again when Trump broke the law. He promised to fight for indigenous rights, abortion rights, immigrant rights and other marginalized people and that November’s election had devastating results, but we must all reach out to help each other.
Following Bob Ferguson was state Rep Pramilla Jyapal who represents the greater Seattle area. Her first words were, “I can’t believe we elected a convicted felon,” and added that the combined wealth of his cabinet is $350 billion and, she added, “We know they’ll pass laws benefitting the wealthy. These guys (and they are guys) don’t know what eggs or diapers cost.” She continued by asserting that when Steven Miller and Trump start rounding up immigrants and attacking LGBQ rights and women’s rights, she had the crowd yell, “Not on our watch.” She mentioned the recent bill that passed denying transgender athletes the right to participate in sports and a new bill that’s likely to pass where immigrants who are simply accused of any crime, even petty crimes, will immediately be deported. If that passes anyone can accuse an immigrant of a crime whether it’s true or not, just to get them deported. She stated that she would not attend the inauguration.
It was 35 degrees when I arrived at Cal Anderson Park and no one suggested we move the rally indoors. Trump claims he’s concerned people might get injured if his inauguration is held outside in the frigid DC temps. I’m sure his concerns for people are sincere, just like he showed concern while his minions terrorized our nation’s capital and he watched it happen on TV and laughed as the Capital police fought for their lives.
As we marched the two miles from the Capitol Hill neighborhood to the Seattle Center, I heard chants of, fuck Trump, but not in the fun way.
I was disappointed in the turnout. There were maybe a thousand people in attendance. In years past we had turnouts in the tens of thousands. Are people that apathetic now? I don’t understand why more people didn’t participate. We are about to become a fascist nation. This event was one of several that happened around the country including thousands in DC that focused on abortion, rights, immigration rights and the Israel-Hamas war…
