Women from the western suburbs were among the hundreds of thousands of people who filled the streets of the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington Saturday.
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Carrie Brasser, 41, of Elmhurst, boarded a bus Friday and got back on the bus Saturday night, just so she could participate.
“It was amazing,” she said. “This was all in response to Nov. 8 and the election, and our new president’s comments related to Planned Parenthood, a woman’s right to choose, racism, health care for all and education. This was a chance for us to stand up and say, ‘We’re not going to take it sitting down.’ We wanted to make our voice heard.”
Brasser said she especially wanted to be in Washington for the march, even though she could have saved herself about 25 hours on a bus driving downtown for the Chicago march instead.
“I went to college in D.C. and wanted to be there right in the middle of it, where it was happening,” she said. “And I’m really glad that I went.”
Brasser said she also was there to represent her three young sons.
“This is about the future for all of us,” she said. :The key now is to harness this energy from the march, and it has to be a grassroots effort. We need to be on top of this administration and make calls and send emails.”
Liz Reyes, president of the board of trustees for the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale, went “to show that there is this large group of people ready to organize and stand up for, not just women’s rights, but for the rights of the disabled, of gays and lesbians, of immigrants.”
“The crowd was filled with men, women and kids,” Reyes said. “Many were carrying signs representing the rights of every vulnerable population. My favorite was, ‘Women’s rights are human rights.'”
Reyes, who lives in Riverside, said she has been to the capital many times and never imagined the National Mall so crowded.
“It was beyond full and overflowing into the adjacent streets for many blocks,” Reyes said. “I have never been around so many people in my life.”
The logistics of traveling to Washington, D.C. for the march could be a barrier for some people, Reyes said, but she knew she could stay with her husband’s relatives, who live on Capitol Hill and within walking distance of the march. She had frequent flier miles she could cash in and once she found an available flight, she thought, “I can’t say no to this.”
Instead of feeling threatened or anxious by some of the president’s remarks during the campaign, why not take part in a nonviolent public action with people who share the same values, Reyes said.
“We started walking to the march at 10:30 a.m. or so and right away we joined the hundreds of people walking from (Robert F. Kennedy Memorial) stadium where the out-of-town buses were parked. I marched with my husband’s cousin, Abigal Kruger. We stayed for about four hours. The mood was positive, yet determined and strong.”
Heather Pralle of Brookfield flew with several of her girlfriends. She wanted to attend to make her concerns known about issues such as immigration, women’s rights and prejudice. She noted that she has nieces who are Muslim and wanted to be there on their behalf.
She said the march attracted many people with diverse backgrounds.
“It was packed. It was crowded. There were all sorts of people there. There were people of all races. There was an old woman with a walker,” she said. “It took two hours to walk two miles.”
Though the issues that brought people to the march are serious, she said the mood of the event “‘was celebratory.”
Attending the march was a boost for Pralle, who wants to stay involved.
“It made me feel better that we’re all in it and we’re going to keep a watch on what’s going on,” she said.
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