Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
The Associated Press Women gather early on the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency Saturday to participate in the Women’s March on Washington. Several area women were among the estimated 500,000 people who joined the protest.
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Georgia Stapleton, of Shawano, back in the city Tuesday, poses with the sign she carried Saturday at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
It started as a Facebook post from a woman in Hawaii, who suggested to 40 of her friends the idea of going to Washington on the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration to hold a protest march.
“It got on Facebook and went ballistic,” said Georgia Stapleton, of Shawano.
“Because so many people were interested, bus companies got involved, (travel) agents got involved, and as it turned out then there were 1,200 buses versus the 200 buses for the inauguration,” she said.
As the date grew closer, organizers were expecting 200,000 people to join the Women’s March on Washington. The numbers that turned out in D.C. on Saturday were a bit higher — an estimated 500,000.
That’s not counting the marches held around the country and around the world.
“I think social media had a lot to do with it,” Stapleton said, “and I think, in general, people are not happy with perhaps the decline of equal rights, and they came out.”
It wasn’t just equal rights, Stapleton said. A variety of interests spurred marchers to show up.
Stapleton’s own primary concern, as someone who has worked in the industry as a registered nurse, was health care.
Stapleton cited a study done by two Harvard Medical School professors that estimated repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, would result in 43,956 deaths every year.
The study, recently published in the Washington Post, said those estimates are based on one life having been saved for every 455 people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to health insurance or health care without the Affordable Care Act.
Stapleton is also opposed to Trump’s cabinet pick for Health and Human Services secretary: Tom Price, who has expressed opposition not only to Obamacare, but also to Medicare and Medicaid.
“How can someone who is opposed to patient care be our secretary of Health and Human Services?” Stapleton said.
Stapleton’s bus left from Appleton on Friday, with a group mostly from Green Bay, Appleton, Kaukauna and the Wausau areas, along with two other marchers from Shawano and a woman from Bonduel who brought her children along.
Stapleton kept a journal of her trip and asked others to sign it, along with their reason for marching.
“One of the themes throughout their entries was that they are trying to protect their children and their children’s rights,” she said. “That was the bottom line with a lot of them. They’re very concerned about the future generation.”
Those concerns included health care, equal pay, equal rights, treatment of women and civil justice, Stapleton said.
“There were very different backgrounds,” she said. “All ages. Lots of men were there, old men, young men. Some of the older men were pushing their wives in wheelchairs; the young men, lots of them were pushing strollers with their wives right there. It was very diverse as far as ethnicity, age, wellness. Many disabled people.”
Stapleton said many of the issues marchers and protesters fought for 50 years ago have become relevant again.
“There’s a new movement, and I think it’s going to be strong,” she said.
Stapleton said she hopes the Trump administration and Congress will take notice, but the movement will also be targeting lawmakers in the midterm elections.
She said she knows many people who have already contacted their legislators.
“We will continue to do so,” she said.
“People will be voting on congressional legislators in two years,” Stapleton said. “If things continue the way they are, I think there will be a greater number of Democrats back in Congress in both the Senate and the House of Representatives,” she said. “For us who disagree and oppose (Trump’s) policies, we won’t stop. We won’t stop.”
Stapleton said more marches are being planned for April 15, “because it’s Tax Day and people want to see Donald Trump’s taxes.”
Stapleton said Trump needs to realize he lost the popular vote count by nearly 3 million votes
“He won by the electoral college,” she said. “There is opposition to that and to the people he is putting in his cabinet. I don’t think people in these days are willing to just sit back and not say anything. This is a way for people to let their legislators know that they’re not going to sit back.”
Despite all the political angst, the mood of the crowd in Washington on Saturday was an optimistic one, Stapleton said.
“People were very happy that day,” she said. “They were very friendly, they were very happy. They really were interested in people’s stories. I think civil and social rights and justice was really the bottom line. Hopefully, the administration and our legislators heard that or saw that.”