{"id":21130,"date":"2018-01-20T17:39:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-21T00:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21130"},"modified":"2018-01-20T17:39:21","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T00:39:21","slug":"missoula-womens-march-a-big-draw-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/01\/missoula-womens-march-a-big-draw-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Missoula Women’s March a big draw, too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mizzo<\/a>

Martin Kidston\/Missoula Current<\/p>

Several thousand people, many clad in pink, crowded the streets to dance and sing before descending on Caras Park to celebrate the second annual Women\u2019s March.<\/p><\/div>\n

Calling for justice for all, marchers convened in downtown Missoula\u00a0on Saturday\u00a0to send a message of female empowerment and unity, and to warn political leaders that the midterm election isn\u2019t far away.<\/p>\n

Several thousand people, many clad in pink, crowded the streets to dance and sing before descending on Caras Park to celebrate the second annual Women\u2019s March. It was easily the largest activist crowd Missoula has seen in recent times.<\/p>\n

\u201cRevolution loves company,\u201d proclaimed Erin Erickson, founder of Missoula Rises and one of the event\u2019s organizers. \u201cThere is no greater threat to the critics, cynics and fear mongers than those of us who are willing to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The march in Missoula was one of several held\u00a0Saturday\u00a0across Montana, as well as other U.S. cities and abroad. The combined force gathered to face a president they deem as divisive, and a Republican congressional majority they contend has placed profits over people and corporations over the environment.<\/p>\n

As Lauren Small Rodriguez put it, women were the first environment, carrying their babies in water. An American Indian, she introduced herself in her native language.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cDo they know more than we do?\u201d she asked, receiving a resounding \u201cNo\u201d from the crowd. \u201cDo they know what\u2019s best for our bodies? Do they know what\u2019s best for our children? This is still the reality we face in 2018. Why are we still voting for a president who devalues women?\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s\u00a0march followed the inaugural event held one year ago this weekend \u2014 itself fired as a warning shot across the bow of an unpopular president whose narcissistic politics and ugly statements have further divided the country.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Rebecca Weston led a coalition of women to launch the #MeTooMontana movement. Among its many aims, it\u2019s asking the state\u2019s congressional leaders to confront the president regarding allegations of sexual harassment and assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to show Steve Daines, Greg Gianforte, Jon Tester and (Montana) Senate President Scott Sales that women will not tolerate being shamed or silenced on issues related to sexual violence,\u201d Weston said. \u201cWe demand that they speak up and take action on behalf of women in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the stage in Caras Park, Weston told women in the crowd that while their struggle won\u2019t be easy, they won\u2019t be left to fight the fight alone. Several hundred men also attended\u00a0Saturday\u2019s\u00a0event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stars are brighter when the skies are darkest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Event coordinators billed the gathering as a show of intersectional feminism, and the hundreds of protest signs on display drove their point home. They called for the protection of Dreamers and the environment. They took shots at the nation\u2019s patriarchal society while defending truth and a free press. And they lampooned President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

One signed read, \u201cGrab \u2019em in the midterms,\u201d a reference to Trump\u2019s \u201cGrab \u2019em in the pussy\u201d statement recorded by “Access Hollywood.” Most in the crowd wanted accountability, both in the White House and in Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so exciting, so necessary and so powerful, and it\u2019s time,\u201d said Kali Lindner. \u201cWomen by nature are collaborators, and it\u2019s going to take collaborators to make this next change happen. We\u2019re going to march side by side, we\u2019re going to dance side by side, and we\u2019re going to share our stories side by side so we can rewrite this story.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou and me together are going to be the instigators,\u201d she told the crowd.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on\u00a0Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calling for justice for all, marchers convened in downtown Missoula\u00a0on Saturday\u00a0to send a message of female empowerment and unity, and to warn political leaders that the midterm election isn\u2019t far away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":21131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[365,5425],"class_list":["post-21130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-missoula","tag-womens-march","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21132,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21130\/revisions\/21132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}