By Dean Midyette
Pioneer Staff
It started with a simple post on Facebook. I think we should march, an invitation to friends from a Hawaiian grandmother. It spread quickly as hundreds of new Facebook pages encouraged thousands of women to sign up to march on Washington.
On Saturday, January 21st they showed up, women and men, girls and boys. Here in British Columbia, they marched in Vancouver and Victoria. In Kelowna and Kamloops. They marched in Castlegar, Prince George, Nanaimo, on Salt Spring and Bowen Islands and in many other communities across our province.
They marched for inclusion and against bigotry. They marched for equal pay and for reproductive rights. They marched for health care, for immigration reform, against religious discrimination and against class boundaries.
They marched, calling for an end to violence against women and for a healthy and respectful world for our children. They marched for LGBTQ rights and for the rights of workers.
They marched in Australia and South Africa. They marched in cities throughout Europe, in India, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iceland, and Iraq. In over 75 countries around the world they marched.
They marched to express their fundamental freedoms, the freedom to express oneself, the freedom to worship without fear of retribution or discrimination, the freedom to assemble peacefully and to associate with whomever they wish.
They marched in over 200 cities across the United States. Over a quarter of a million marched in New York City, over half a million marched in Washington, DC and over three quarters of a million marched in Los Angeles. In all, over 3.7 million people in America marched. Worldwide, the number of marchers surpassed 6 million.
They marched for freedom and for democracy. They marched because womens rights are human rights.
