Women's March

March 15, 2017

When my sister first told me about a women's march that was going to happen around the time Trump would be inaugurated I knew I wanted to participate. Anyone that knows me, knows I was devastated by the outcome of our presidential election. Never before has there been a candidate like Donald Trump (self confessed sexual assaulter, petty and small minded, no true ideals or convictions, shady Russian connections, obvious white supremacists as his most trusted advisers, the way he has stoked unfounded fears of immigrants and Muslims . . . I could go on and on haha). Looking back on other Republican candidates, I can't even imagine how different I would feel if one them won (I was looking into voting for Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio after all!). To me, opposing Trump is not about partisan politics at all, it's about defending our American values. Yes, I get that now he is our president, and as far as he proposes things that would help America I'm OK with people working with him. But to me, I wanted to add my voice in sending a big signal that the majority of Americans are NOT OK with the way he ran his candidacy, and that we would stay vigilant to live up to our wonderful American ideals. I want to be able to hold my head high when I tell my grandchildren what I did during this crazy time in our US political history.

So anyway, Kathryn and her girls planned to go to the women's march in Park City that was being organized by Chelsea Handler and some other celebrities who where there for Sundance Film Festival.

I made my sign, and then bright and early Saturday morning I left to meet them in Draper where we would drive to Park City together.

Except we both couldn't get very far. There was a CRAZY snowstorm that morning, and honestly there were cars sliding across the road all around me on Bangeter. So, we turned around with plans to meet at the Women's March that would be in Salt Lake for the first day of the state legislative season the following Monday.

Look at how much snow there was!!

As disappointed as I was that I couldn't go to Park City, I was happy I got to have a snow day with the kids!

That evening we went to play some mini golf, and then Erik and I went to Kneaders while the kids started their movie in the basement.

haha the basketball hoop looked so crazy!

This picture was probably from Sunday :)

Well since I was going to the other Women's March, I was very excited to take the kids with me! I know some people judged me for doing this, but I think its such a great experience to expose kids to our civic opportunities as citizens. Being an active citizen has always been very important to me (I remember begging my Mom in high school to take me and my friend Jacqui to Joe Serna's funeral to show support and appreciate for all he did as mayor of Sacramento and as an activist working with Cesar Chavez during the farm strike of the 1960s... we went and it was awesome), and I plan to raise my kids that way. I loved their signs they made-- we were excited!

Once we parked, we met up with the Madsens and then we found the marchers.

It was such a cool experience! There was such a warm, happy feeling of activism! There was no fighting, no obscene situations, nothing that made me wonder if the kids should be there.

I wouldn't be surprised if they end up having very different political opinions than I do (that's pretty normal after all!), but I'm glad they got to see that being active in your community is important!

So many people! Even in this crazy snow!

At the state capitol, as many as could fit, went inside and we heard speeches from some of the women that organized the event. It was fun to read the signs and seeing the various reasons for people's protesting. For me, it was a response to Donald Trump himself like I said above, but for Utah specifically it was to make clean air more of a priority!

The kids were total troopers, but they were getting tired (well Anna especially), so after a couple of speeches I told them we could leave.

Honestly, just like blogging about our Orlando vacation made me want to go back. Blogging about this event, makes me want to experience it again. I was so heartened to see that even in my ultra conservative state of Utah there were lots and lots and lots of people with my same concerns. I really am hopeful that there are enough people that are against bigotry, sexism, and xenophobia that those things will not prevail. And most of all, I am so thankful to live in a country that allows freedom of expression and protest. America is a pretty wonderful and amazing country :)