Thousands of Virginians spent their weekend traveling to Washington, marching and recovering. Sandy Hausman caught up with some of them as they rode a bus back to Charlottesville.
The protesters left at 6 in the morning and were not home until 10 p.m., but even as night and rain fell on the bus home, they were excited and hopeful. They had come to the march for various reasons
“Because I wanted the bully to know that he cannot mess around with us.”
“Two reasons: One is William and the other is Jacoby. Those are my two sons, and they are two years old. I don’t want them growing up in a world where there’s a war against women.”
“Because I think it’s important that Trump knows that he cannot espouse the hate that he has been and go unnoticed and unchecked.”
“It brings me to tears – the horror of what’s happened, and it’s made me realize that I have to work harder.”
“Not showing up is complacency and showing that we think it’s okay, and we don’t think it’s okay.”
“I was the first woman with my company that I worked for after college, and Playboy bunnies came to my training. I’m fighting this for my daughter, and when I see it going backward again, I thought, ‘Oh no!’”
“In November I felt that there was a real opportunity for people to become activists. We were sad. People felt a great deal of despair. They lost hope, but our President Obama encouraged us to be the change, right?”
“I feel like our president-elect is spending a lot of time disputing the existence of people who disagree with him. If crowd size is what means something to him, I figured we should come out and show him the biggest damn crowd he’s seen in his life.”
For Cara Boazman and her mother, this was just one leg in a long trip. Linda Whitney had flown from California to march with her daughter, friends Charlottesville and Lynchburg, while Cara came in from the Lone Star State.
“Coming from Texas, I was sitting next to a person who looked very Texan – shaved head, Wranglers, cowboy boots, very heavy set, very gruff, and he asked me what I was doing, and I hesitated to tell him, and once I did he actually started crying and said, ‘Thank you so much!’ Because he and his partner had been together for 14 years, and they got married two years ago, and he’s terrified it’s going to get repealed.”
She and her new friends on the bus cheered when CNN announced the march had drawn 1.5 million people, and they chuckled over signs that marchers carried.
"Warning! Known sexual predator moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This is not normal."
"This was one of my favorites: You're so vain, you probably think this march is about you."
"Yeah, I saw one that I thought was pretty funny. It said, 'I made this sign. I make good signs. Everybody thinks I make good signs. Everybody likes my signs,' and of course it was a very ordinary sign."
“We need a leader, not a creepy tweeter.”
“Humpty Trumpty, have a good fall.”
“I loved this one: ‘When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.’ Now that’s powerful.”
“Electial dysfunction. That was, by far, one of my favorites.”
“The 2008 Hope signs that said, ‘Nope.’”
“Mike Pence likes Nickelback. That one cracked me up.”
“There was one of Donald Trump whose hair was sort of flying in the wind and it said, ‘We shall overcomb.’”
“And then of course we started to sing ‘We shall Overcomb.’ So we had a lot of fun.”
And there was time, in the dark, to think about what comes next.
“This is only the beginning of a movement to get people to vote. Forty-six percent of registered voters in a presidential election did not come out to vote.”
“We need to really keep track of the news and what’s going on and continue having gatherings of this sorty and really let the people know and the government know that this is going to be unacceptable.”
“I’ve already started taking steps for me to be more involved in the community – put some money into a local grass roots market that’s going to put an end to a food dessert in our local downtown area. I’m working with a group of underprivileged youth – various things that I had wanted to do, but this really motivated me to say this is the time.”
“It’s going to be a long, hard struggle, and I don’t know specifically what comes next, but there’s going to be more of this.”
“I guess we stay on our representatives – call and write and do everything we can to organize on a local level.”
“It’s making those phone calls to your representatives and making sure you stay engaged in local politics. It’s making sure the conversation keeps going, which may feel like a little bit of drudgery, but that’s the only way it’s going to get done.”
For the names of those who shared their thoughts, and to hear from other Virginians who marched, go to our website, RadioIQ.org. On the bus from Washington, I’m Sandy Hausman
Thanks to the following marchers for sharing their views:
Shaneka Smit, Jasmine Sims, Allison Carr, Natasha Guadelupe, Cara Boazman, Linda Whitney, Beth Scott, Pat Salin Huston, Warren Muse, Catherine Muse, Ezra Maille, Tamika Allen, Megan Gadient, Gavin Baum, Pat Smith, Ann McAndrew, Janet Dob, Bree Luck, Camden Luck, Mike McMahan, Kathy Ralston, Mittie Harvey, Walker Thornton, Cat Clerikin, Kobby Hoffman, Emily Blout, Diana Mead, Jean Milan Wheeler, Angela Lynn
Marchers Tell Why They Went to Washington
Marchers Reflect on Next Steps
Marchers Recall Their Favorite Signs