On Saturday, January 21, 2017, almost half a million people showed up in this nation’s capital to march. Millions of people marched all over the world to protest for what they believed in including keeping planned parenthood, Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, immigration, science, etc. It began at 10 a.m. and the rally of speakers and performers went on as the march began.

“It was the ‘Women’s March,’ but it was more than that. It represented all minorities and all groups that have been oppressed,” Claudio Manno (’17) explained. “There were so many people from so many different backgrounds and it was awesome to know that we could all be there for the same reason.”

Manno’s favorite part of the march were the speakers. Some of them were calm and others were passionate about what they were saying and showed it, but there was no violence. Even though there were so many people packed in a three block radius, it stayed peaceful. “There were so many polite people. You could turn to a stranger and make a joke and they would laugh with you,” Manno said.

Jordan Rollins (’17) said, “I marched partially because I feel that, as a woman, it’s necessary and right for me to have the right to my body and for those rights to be taken away is something that really.., it can’t happen… Women need to show him that it’s not okay to make comments about the mentally disabled, or immigrants, or a specific race, or just anything you shouldn’t say in public.”

“When the march got too crowded and we had to split off onto separate streets, we were following behind this group of people where there were these two little girls behind their parents and they were saying the ‘This is what democracy looks like’ chant between each other,” Rollins said. “They would change it from democracy to feminism to America to all kinds of different amazing terms and I thought it was really touching to see people of all ages being touched by our protest.”

The march meant something different to every person who attended and even those who didn’t attend. To Rollins, “It meant that I’m not alone in the way that I feel, in the way that I’m thinking, in my fears, in my insecurities, my anxieties, and it made me feel like if I need to talk about it, there are people around me who will talk with me about it and it was really a good environment; I have a safe space now.”