THE HOME-GROWN “PINK PUSSYHAT”: THE SYMBOL OF A WORLD-WIDE MARCH

…A sea of home-knitted pink “Pussyhats” symbolized the distain of the newly installed US President

 

Only an imbecile would not see how unpopular Donald Trump is with the bulk of American women.

 

Well, after the women’s marches and demonstrations all around the world, one would have hoped that with such a massive display that covered not just major cities in the US, but 670 locations including Paris, London, Sydney, Melbourne, and even in the Antarctica, the hope was that it would have made an impression on the new president. 

 

But what did he finally have to say about it?  After getting his security update at the CIA, all he did was blast the media about not saying that his inauguration was the largest one ever.... which it wasn’t.

 

What made this all even worse was that Trump’s Press Secretary, on his very first ever visit to the White House Press Room, Sean Spicer had the gall to blast the media and to offer false statements about the size of the crowds at the Trump inauguration. 

 

Any reasonable person looking at the Washington Mall pictures comparing the 2009 inauguration, next to pictures of the Trump event, can see there is no comparison.  Obama’s was way larger than Trumps.  In fact, Trump’s event was probably about ½ the size of Obama’s first inauguration.  But Spicer just made his false statements and stormed out of the press room without taking questions.

 

Of course, regarding Trump’s support base, because Trump calls the media the “most dishonest people around”, his base of supporters naturally hate the media.  Trump’s people know this, so they just continue to falsely claim that what the media is saying is always false.

 

However, based on what we saw occurring all over this great nation, with all the “Pink Pussyhats” displayed as an anti-Trump statement in all the videos of the crowds in the major US cities, only an imbecile would not see how unpopular Donald Trump is today with the bulk of American women.

 

The Woman’s March in DC was an unprecedented anti-Trump display.  What started as a Facebook post by a female retiree in Hawaii, and then initially started as a permit request for 200,000 to march in Washington on the day after the inauguration.  What it became was more like 500,000 showing up, and that was just at the Washington Mall.

 

Many in the nation’s capital and the other US cities said they were inspired to join because of Trump’s divisive campaign and his total disparagement of women, minorities and immigrants. In signs and shouts, and in pink knit hats, they mocked what they characterized as Trump’s lewd language and sexist demeanor.

 

As expected, both Trump and his Press Secretary tried to say that the media was offering incorrect estimates of the crowd’s sizes of those in support of Trump.  But when Trump’s advisor, and former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway tried to tell Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet The Press",  that “Sean Spicer was offering alternate facts” about the size of the inauguration crowds, Todd came right back at her saying, “alternate facts are not facts”, and Kellyanne just shut up.  Facts are facts, and “alternate facts” are not facts.

 

Then Conway tried multiple times to not answer Todd’s question as to why did the press secretary spent his first time in the press room stating a falsehood and then not taking questions.  Finally, Todd had to just give up asking, as Conway wasn’t going to answer.

 

Even the conservative radio show host, Charlie Sykes, commented on Sean Spicer’s first Press Room false comments about the inauguration crowd sizes.  He called Spicer, “Trump’s Baghdad Bob”, comparing Spicer to Saddam Hussain’s blatantly lying spokesperson during the invasion of Iraq.

 

To make things worse for Spicer, on this first appearance in the Press Room, Spicer had totally refused to take any of the reporter’s questions after he spouted his falsehoods.  In addition, for one of the largest ever marches on Washington and cities around the world, Spicer didn’t even mention the Women’s March on Washington.  Not exactly the best introduction of the new White House Press Secretary on his first day at the job.  The reality is that on his first official day, the Press Secretary had obviously been told by the president to go out and tell the White House reporters absolute lies.

 

The woman’s marches seriously provided a show of support for those eager to be with like-minded citizens who shared their disappointment after Hillary Clinton’s historic bid for the presidency had ended in defeat.

 

“We just want to make sure that we’re heard,” said Mona Osuchukwu, 27, a DC native. “I want her to know that she has a voice,” she said of her 3-year-old daughter, Chioma, who was with her at the march. “No matter what anyone tells her, especially as a black woman in America.”

 

The march organizers have listed more than 670 events worldwide with the cities including Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Mexico City, Berlin and even little Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories, where the temperature was 6 degrees below zero.

 

In Chicago, the demonstration was so large, that 150,000 demonstrators swamped Chicago’s downtown blocks.  This crowding forced officials to curtail the planned march.  But thousands of protesters still paraded around the Chicago Loop. In Boston, police estimated a gathering of 125,000 and in Los Angeles, officials temporarily closed some side streets to accommodate the massive crowds.

 

In Juneau, Alaska, one man was amazed saying that the crowd was the biggest he had ever seen on the state Capitol’s steps. In Philadelphia, marchers filled city bridges and in Lexington, Ky., they shut down the local streets. In New Orleans, participants played their brass jazz instruments.

 

What became clear as we watched throughout the day, was that it was a showing of the fear and anger about Trump’s rise to the most powerful position in the United States.  It was a beautiful way that reverberated at many renowned protest sites around the world, from the Trocadero in Paris to Trafalgar Square in London.

 

All over the United States, the crowds marched in everything from tee shirt and shorts weather, to snow storms and rain and hail.  But what was common to every get-together were all those pink “Pussyhats” and  repeated references to the Trump boast that offended most of the women.  That the reference to Trump’s infamous videoed comments in the Access Hollywood tape in 2005 about his groping of women’s genitals.

 

I was intrigued when I saw some of the signs that were left at the Trump International Hotel (formerly the old US Post Office) after the march.  And this location is just blocks from the White House.  The signs said things like: “Pussy Power” and “This Pussy Bites Back.” 

 

It was sad that for all those coming to the Capital, the hotels took major advantage of these new visitors by increasing the room-rates hour by hour.  When they were done, some hotels had increased their rates by over 900%.  Because of that, a local group started getting on the phone to friends and family and they found local homes and places for some of the visitors to stay, at least for Saturday night.

 

Included in the speakers at the march was the iconic feminist Gloria Steinem, 82, who was among the first speakers.  There were also celebrities such as Cher, Michael Moore, Madonna, Janelle Monáe, Scarlett Johansson and Ashley Judd making appearances along with Cécile Richards, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood.

 

Hillary Clinton did not attend the march, but she tweeted her gratitude: “Thanks for standing, speaking & marching for our values @womensmarch. Important as ever. I truly believe we’re always stronger together.”

 

Although the marchers were mostly female and white, men and people of color also joined the throngs.

 

John Fischer, a 34-year-old locksmith from Grand Rapids, Mich., drove more than nine hours with his wife, Kara Eagle.

 

I’m here to support my wife,” Fischer said. “I don’t care who you are, women impact your life, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have the same rights as men.”

 

The march’s platform focused on issues such as workers’ rights, reproductive rights, environmental justice, immigrant rights, and ending violence against women.

 

But a group of women who oppose abortion also came, asking that the larger march recognize their own variety of feminism.

 

Whether to include the conservative viewpoint sparked controversy in the days before the event. Antiabortion activists said they had been excluded.  But a Ms. Siobhan Rooney, 32, drove from Philadelphia on Saturday morning to march for women’s rights. For her, that included the rights of fetuses.

 

But at the end, “A good time was had by all”, and it was all done around the world without one word of anyone that was arrested in the peaceful protests against our questionably qualified new US president.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017