In just over a week, tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to the nation’s capital in a show of solidarity for the rights of women and other citizens of the world.
The action comes in the wake of a divisive, bitter political season and the election of Republican Donald Trump. A few thousand Mainers are planning to make the trek.
At 10 a.m. Jan. 21, when thousands assemble near the capitol, Donald Trump will have been sworn in as the nation’s 45th president.
“The transition I think has been demoralizing and frightening for a lot of people, myself included,” says Genevieve Morgan, a writer from Portland who is helping to organize the Maine contingent.
Morgan says for her, this is not an anti-Trump rally. Rather, it’s a demonstration in support of basic principles that seem to be in peril in the wake of Trump’s election.
“There’s a large percentage of us that still believe in what we think is great about America. Which is freedom, liberty for all, opportunity for all, equal opportunity for women, access to health care, equal opportunity for minorities, for immigrants and basically a fair and just society,” she says.
Anita Charles, who plans to attend the march in Washington with her husband and four of her five children, works in education. Next week the family will pile into the car and make the journey from Maine to D.C. for what may be a long, grueling day out in the elements.
Her family is perhaps more diverse than the average Maine clan.
“I have children with disabilities, I have one who is legally blind and has mild cerebral palsy, I have another who is on the autism spectrum. I have children who are brown skinned. I have children who are internationally adopted and therefore that makes them immigrants,” Charles says.
And one of her children performs as a drag queen in Boston. Charles fears a Trump administration could mean a world where some of her children don’t have adequate health care and others are regarded as second-class citizens.
“In part I think this is a protest. We are marching in protest,” she says.
But for Bangor historian Trudy Scee, it’s not a protest. She says she’d rally for such an event no matter who was in the White House.
Scee grew up in a New York housing project, and says she wants issues surrounding civil rights, health care and poverty to be addressed.
“I would like today’s children not to have to go backwards in time. I would not like to feel that some of the things I’ve worked for are just tossed away in the wind,” she says. “But there are great people who voted in both ways in this election. Some loved their candidate, some did not. I really think we have to work together. Like I said, I would have gone no matter who won.”
Scee says she’s marching for the Equal Rights Amendment; for health care for people with chronic health issues, such as her brother who is struggling with a rare autoimmune disorder; and, she says, for all the women “who never had a chance.”
The nationwide action began as many things do these days — with a few posts on social media. Meanwhile, the Maine march Facebook page, emblazoned with Old Glory and a Maine coon cat, is abuzz with plans. Some intrepid parents are even planning to take their toddlers along. Others say they want to go but can’t.
Organizer Kristen Farnham says one 70-year-old woman came up with an idea called March for ME.
“And she has asked that people who are going to march in D.C. bring along and sort of adopt the name of a person who can’t be there,” she says.
There’s also a sister march going on in Augusta that day for those who can’t make the 700-mile journey to Washington.
In all, organizers say 22 buses carrying 1,200 marchers from Maine will be rolling to DC next week. And they expect another 2,000 or so to get there under their own steam.
The whole gathering is expected to top 200,000 in what organizers say will likely be is the biggest inaugural action in the country’s history.
