1M march to challenge agenda of new president

Staff and wire report

In a global exclamation of defiance and solidarity, more than 1 million people, including some from the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, rallied at women’s marches in the nation’s capital and cities around the world Saturday, to send President Donald Trump a message on his first full day in office that they won’t let his agenda go unchallenged.

“Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!” marchers in Washington chanted.

Many of the women came wearing pink, pointy-eared “cat hats” to mock the new president’s disparaging words during the campaign. Plenty of men joined in, too, contributing to surprising numbers everywhere from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles to Mexico City, Paris, Berlin, London, Prague, Copenhagen and Sydney.

The Washington rally alone attracted more than 500,000 people according to city officials — apparently more than Trump’s inauguration drew on Friday. It was easily one of the biggest demonstrations in the city’s history, and as night fell, not a single arrest was reported.

A march along State Street in Sharon, Pa., also was peaceful and drew hundreds of both genders and all ages.

The international outpouring served to underscore the degree to which Trump has unsettled people in both hemispheres.

Lindsay Heldreth of Canfield, a junior philosophy major at Youngstown State University and president of the YSU Chapter of the National Organization for Women who was at the Washington events, is hopeful they will inspire grassroots efforts promoting women’s rights all over the nation.

The hope, she said, is that people were inspired to go home and raise awareness of women‘s rights and recognize that locally is where the change has to start.

“I believe the first female president of the United States will come from one of Saturday’s marches,” she added.

Youngstown native Brenda Irwin of Lakewood also was there and said it was “fabulous ... people helping people ... no one getting angry ... no confrontations. What really touched me was how nice everybody was to each other.”

“My hope is that people don’t go home and just go back to their lives. We have to work hard to make change. I hope this gets a grass- roots thing going. The energy is coming from the bottom up,” said Irwin, a 1980 graduate of The Rayen School who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from YSU.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, also attended the rally.

“The story of America is full of instances where peaceful demonstration has produced positive, lasting change. Coming together to support a common cause is the American way, and I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to join with women and men alike from across the country to declare without hesitation or equivocation that women’s rights are human rights,” the congressman said.

“We march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is waging a war,” actress America Ferrera told the Washington crowd. “Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday. But the president is not America. ... We are America, and we are here to stay.”

Turnout in the capital was so heavy that the designated march route alongside the National Mall was impassable. Protesters were told to make their way to the Ellipse near the White House by way of other streets, triggering a chaotic scene that snarled downtown Washington. Long after the program had ended, groups of demonstrators were still marching and chanting in different parts of the city.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer had no comment on the march except to note that there were no firm numbers for turnout because the National Park Service no longer provides crowd estimates.

Around the world, women brandished signs with slogans such as “Women won’t back down” and “Less fear more love.” They decried Trump’s stand on such issues as abortion, health care, diversity and climate change. And they branded him a sexist, a bully, a bigot and more.

“We want a leader, not a creepy tweeter,” some marchers chanted in Washington.

In Chicago, organizers canceled the march portion of their event for safety reasons because of an overflow crowd that reached an estimated 250,000. People made their way through the streets on their own anyway. In New York, well over 100,000 marched past Trump’s home at glittering Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. More than 100,000 also gathered on Boston Common, and a similar number demonstrated in Los Angeles.

In Miami, real-estate agent Regina Vasquez, 51, brought a sign saying “Repeal and Replace Trump.”

“I believe that strength is in the numbers, and that we should all come out and not make Trump the new normal,” she said.

All told, more than 600 “sister marches” were planned worldwide. Crowd estimates from police and organizers around the globe added up to well over a million.

“I feel very optimistic even though it’s a miserable moment,” said Madeline Schwartzman of New York City, who brought her twin 13-year-old daughters to the Washington rally. “I feel power.”

The Women’s March on Washington appeared to accomplish the historic feat of drawing more people to protest the inauguration than the ceremony itself attracted.

It far surpassed the 60,000 people who protested the Vietnam War at Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1973. Before Saturday, that was thought to be the largest such demonstration in inaugural history.

Christopher Geldart, Washington’s homeland security director, said the crowd exceeded the 500,000

Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump, took to Twitter to thank the participants for “standing, speaking and marching for our values.”

Vindicator Staff Writer Bill Alcorn and Associated Press Writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Tami Abdollah, Juliet Linderman, Brian Witte, Matthew Barakat, and David Dishneau in Washington contributed to this report.