Gail Cook marches because...

I march because I can. I know everyone shares the anger, frustration, helplessness and hopelessness the 2016 election caused. The instant I saw the Women’s March posted on Facebook a year ago in November, I said to myself, “I can do that!”  I marched in Washington, D.C. The experience of a lifetime, starting when I got on the plane in Phoenix in the last boarding group and realized at least 99% of the passengers were going to the march. Some of the men were wearing pussy hats. I felt I could make a difference and be a part of something important and just do something with my anger and frustration.

The estimate was that 190,000 people would show up for the march in D.C. Sometime during the day I heard 500,000.  It wasn’t a march, it was a mob. No one could march anywhere because all the streets around the capital were packed with people.  When I got back to the hotel I watched the news in tears: 700,000 people marched in Los Angeles! 500,000 in New York City! What a joy to see all the big cities and small towns in America and all over the world marching! I watched the video of the Prescott march on Facebook—the courthouse square completely ringed by people marching in the snow and slush. The Women’s March last year was the start of the resistance. I had never protested before in my life, and today I can’t remember how many protests I have participated in during the past year. Ten, maybe? 

Sexual molestation, assault and harassment along with gender discrimination, yeah, no shit, me too.  Try to find a woman in this country who has not suffered one or all of these. I always say the Women’s March is not just about women, but it was organized by women. I march for anyone in this country who has suffered discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or gender and to protest a president and his administration that encourages and supports that discrimination. And to protest a president who should not be president.

On Christmas day I received a text message from a woman I met while waiting on the train platform in Baltimore before dawn the morning of the 2017 Women's March. She lives in Baltimore and works in D.C.  She contacted me to see if I was coming back to D.C. for the march this year. I told her I was involved in organizing the march in my hometown this year and we promised to send each other photos. I think about all the people I have met through Prescott Indivisible. It has been a rough year, but I believe good will eventually come for our country that has been divided because it has united so many of us!