The Women’s March in Denver
Since I started this blog last fall, I have been really struggling with what to write. I know that food allergies fall into the category of invisible disabilities, disabilities that are not totally obvious to outsiders, and they are also very dull when you have them under reasonable control. The allergies in my household have been reasonably under control lately so I am going write about the local women’s march.
This morning, I got to the first bus station in my town with some friends at about 7:30AM, and the line for the busses wrapped around all four corners of the station. The end of the line was very close to the point where the first people in line were loading onto the bus. The RTD did an excellent job of getting people to and from the event. They ran extra busses and managed the crowd really well.
Someone was offering cupcakes to the people standing in line. They looked like they were chocolate with vanilla frosting, and I would probably not die of nut allergies if I ate one.
Once we reached Denver, we had to walk to the start of the march.
Eventually, the people walking from the train station met up with the people who were marching and just merged into this giant persistent mass that did an impressive job stopping at the crosswalks. A lot of the signs were both vague and optimistic.
As we were marching, I photographed this lady because she was carrying and optimistic sign and also wearing a cowboy hat like people do in Denver. A short while later, I spotted a dancer that I knew from one of the dance classes in my hometown. We stood and talked for a moment before I continued to the march with my other dancer friend and her husband. The police officers did a great job of putting up barricades to make the route less confusing, and they took photos with people who were marching. The only criticism that I saw from police was an officer asking a person on a bicycle to move from the sidewalk to the bus lane.
Eventually, we reached Civic Center Park and saw more cowboy hats and the capitol building. The top of Colorado State Capitol dome is made with real gold leaf.
One of my friends said that he felt like the number of men in the crowd increased once we reached Denver and that he felt greatly outnumbered on the bus. I really liked this veteran’s sign.
Not really knowing what to do when we reached the park, I tried to use FireChat to connect with another one of my friends. Unfortunately, the density of the crowd between my position and hers was too great so we gave up and moved back to some of the less crowded and sunnier parts of the park.
My friend’s sign says, “Human Rights: Not Just for White Male Christian Billionaires.” It was comforting to see so many people of all ages, genders, nationalities. I also saw numerous people with very visible disabilities.
People were using canes, pushing around their oxygen tanks, and being wheeled around by their parents. There were a number of signs related to the Affordable Care Act. This one is for U. S. Senator Cory Gardner, the Republican Senator of the state of Colorado.
There were people at the march representing various causes, but everyone was fairly unified and acknowledged that we were there together. Here are some of the photos of the various causes.
There were a number of children at this event.
Before the march, anywhere between 15,000 and 40,000 people were expected to be there. Coming back from the march, I saw estimates in the 100,000 to 200,000 range for how many people had been there.
The busses for the return trip moved quickly and efficiently, and I was really impressed with how RTD handled the event. Thank you.