Claudia Chase wasn’t sure how many people would show up for the Women’s March in Francestown on Saturday, but she thought the turnout would be high. She was right.
“Apparently with the Internet, you can organize anything,” Chase, an ex-state rep, said. “I’m pretty good at throwing parties.”
Around 140 people assembled on the town common at 11 a.m. before marching up and down Main Street, holding signs of protest in solidarity with the Women’s Marches happening all around the country and the world.
Among them were Krista Stringer and her daughter Emily Rose of Temple, who carried colorful signs with messages like “All people are equal.”
“We just support equal rights for everybody,” Stringer said. “Not just women having equal rights, but all people having equal rights. Women, men, transgender, lesbian, gay, old people, young people, we’re all human and I don’t think we need to single anybody out. Immigrants, people of all races, we’re all people.”
BJ Carbee, who helped organize the march with Chase and fellow Francestownian Lisa Borbeau, called the turnout “outrageous,” noting that it drew in people from a multitude of towns and from as far away as Leominster, Massachusetts.
“I fear for future generations as to what we’re leaving them via our country,” Carbee said, “because I strongly believe that we are experiencing global warming, despite the deniers.”
Just then, Dennis Orsi popped out of his Main Street house, to visit the post office and get a look at the march. Orsi, a conservative, wasn’t cowed by the turnout, or Carbee’s sandwich board, which read “Strong women only intimidate weak men.”
“I’m not intimidated,” Orsi said. “I actually think from a Republican standpoint this is a good thing. Because, the majority of the country doesn’t agree with it, so the more you do it and the more people that don’t show up to the inauguration, the more stuff they do, the more they push the middle our way.”
State Rep. Ivy Vann (D) traveled with her family to Washington D.C. for the march. She departed on a bus from Northampton at 1 a.m. on Saturday that winded its way through the night and arrived in the nation’s capital at 9 a.m.
“I felt like I wanted there to be at least one march that was packed,” Vann said of the decision to travel to D.C.
She also committed to going to the event in D.C. before any sister marches were organized, although more than 600 events ended up taking place in every single state in the country and areas abroad.
“This (the march) is not about a single person, this is about an agenda,” Vann said. “I wanted to be in the streets saying I’m not buying this agenda. Yes, Trump is vulgar and unqualified, but it’s more about this administration’s agenda.”
She said the current president’s comments on race have also been particularly concerning. Vann grew up in the segregated south, where she remembers colored wash rooms. The high school she attended wasn’t desegregated until 1969.
“I remember where we’ve been and how far we’ve come,” Vann said.
She said the march was larger than any she has seen in her lifetime and said the movement shows no signs of puttering out either. Already swaths of people are committed to working for similar causes in the future, she said. There are 7,000 people across the country who are committed to showing up to their state congressional offices on Tuesday, and a group is organizing to knock on doors as a way to mobilize efforts.
A colored piece of paper that was hung from a tree during the Wilton Peace Action solidarity gathering on Saturday reads “ask to create bridges, not walls.” Another reads “keep my voice relevant and protect my freedom.”
The messages were some of more than 100 scrawled onto snippets of paper and tied to trees as part of a gathering aimed at supporting the Women’s March on Washington.
Co-organizer of the event Gail Proctor, of Wilton, estimated that 150 people attended the event, a number she called “flabbergasting.” She said in the past when the Wilton Peace Action – a group that was incepted at the beginning of the Iraq War but has since become inactive – organized events, they were generally sparsely attended.
“This was so different from anything we have ever done,” Proctor said.
The gathering included a speech from a town selectmen and state Reps. Kermit Williams (D) and Carol Roberts (D). People also sang songs of peace, which were led by local musicians.
“I think the essence of our country is at stake here,” Proctor said as a reason why so many people came out to the event. “We’ve gone to war before but it wasn’t enough to tear apart the country, the foundation of how we live in the country is at risk.”
At the end of the gathering, Proctor said, more than 60 people left their names and emails on a sheet of paper who want to keep in touch with the Wilton Peace Action group to be alerted about future events. Proctor said the group will also stay closely connected to organizers at the Women’s March on Washington who are already harnessing energy from the event and creating 10 actions people can work towards in the next 100 days.
Nearly every week, James Giddings and his wife Denise Ginzler, of Greenville, stand on the steps of the Town House in Peterborough for a weekly peace vigil.
They were on the steps again this Saturday when the vigil was expanded to include the concerns of people who would have liked to have travel to Washington but were unable to do so. The event was expanded by women affiliated with the Monadnock Quaker Meeting.
Ginzler said the vigil was spontaneously organized and did not consist of a program, instead the event unfolded organically. They sang songs and invited anyone who was interested to share their thoughts or concerns about the incoming administration.
She said some stood up and spoke of how scared they were to lose their health insurance, while others from the LGBTQ community said they were afraid of not being supported under the current administration.
“I thought the Women’s March in general is important because a lot of women and men are feeling that life is getting more difficult under the new administration and we need to stand up for the things we believe in,” Ginzler said.
Ginzler said she made a sign specifically for the solidarity gatherings that reads “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.
Walking away from the event in Wilton, which the couple also attended, and the gathering in Peterborough, Ginzler said she felt inspired.
“There is a community of people who are willing to show up and willing to work to make things better,” Ginzler said.
Giddings called the development of local rallies in many towns and cities across the country a “wonderful trend.”
Emily Rose, marching in Francestown, summed it up.
“The whole world just needs love right now,” she said.