We marched and spoke as one, saying the time for a better America has come. We are organized, we are voting, we are looking out for one another, and we are going to win!

With an estimated crowd of 4000 people starting at Lincoln Park, the 2nd Annual Women’s March in Grand Junction on January 20 inspired and energized even more people than last year! At the end of the march, a rally held on the steps of the county courthouse featured speakers from a number of different backgrounds, including Samantha Harris with Black Lives Matter, Emad Shahnooshi with the Muslim Youth Leadership Council and Erin Riccio with Conservation Colorado.

Keynote speaker Kathryn “Kat” Rodriguez, a board member with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, repeatedly reminded the crowd that “It’s time to get to work!”

“I understand that there are limits to my personal experience, and that it is only by interweaving my struggle with the struggle of friends, allies, and accomplices, that we will we create meaningful, systemic change,” Rodriguez said. “I believe in my heart that to achieve true solidarity, we must be willing not just to hear about the struggles of those around us, but to be uncomfortable with it.”

This theme of “intersectionality” – the idea that oppressions are interlinked and cannot be solved alone – was carried into a workshop at Mesa Theatre after the rally.

Thanks to all the individuals who participated and all the organizations that came together to make it happen!

The first Women’s Rally on 1/21/2017 was answering a call to fight for a world that is equitable, tolerant, just and safe for all, one in which the human rights and dignity of each person is protected and our planet is safe from destruction. Grounded in the nonviolent ideology of the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s March was the largest coordinated protest in U.S. history and one of the largest in world history.

(cover photo courtesy of Lee Gelatt Photography)