Most notable about the anti Trump demonstrations was not just the numbers, which were incredibly larger than anything in Washington yesterday for the inauguration, but that in general they actually were not anti-trump or anti-anything but instead about the same peace, love, and understanding that was the rallying cry of the peace movement of the ‘60s in the US.
Crowd size
The Boston police and emergency management officials were prepared for a crowd of approximately 25,000; the number that actually gathered was five or six times larger, with an official Boston Police estimate of 130,000 or more.
This reporter was in Boston as a student during the late ‘60s at the time of anti-war riots so bad that the physical gates at Harvard were closed and chained for the first time in living memory; today’s crowds were incomparably larger than any anti-war demonstration all those years ago but they were entirely peaceful and not, for the most part anti-Trump. Many of the people in the crowd told reporters both in interviews and with their signs that they were demonstrating to promote a better America and that many still had hopes that their new president would help them.
Peaceful crowds of women and men filled the Boston Commons today as well as cities across the nation, as the women’s “pink” march and Protest gathered people of every race to tell President Trump not so much that they are against him but rather oppose some of the policies he appears to support.
There were such gigantic crowds that many of the “marches” were simply impossible because there were simply physically too many people to hold a march after such a gigantic demonstration. The women’s march in Washington that was supposed to end at the White House couldn’t be held, not because of government intervention but simply because Lafayette Park and the entire area around the Trump White House were already so crowded that no march could physically be held.
Madonna
Giving way to the emotion of the moment, Madonna spoke so passionately that CNN felt it had to stop broadcasting her talk to pink supporters after the third live “F” bomb she included in her electrifying address to a massive crowd.
Film maker Michael Moore reminded CNN that this was the first giant protest rally in Washington which actually had the majority of Americans on the same side.
What will Trump do?
The unanswered question at this time is, how will the new president react to these massive rallies? Will he begin yet another tweet storm, or will his better nature humble him enough to recall that peaceful protest is the hallmark of any democracy?
He certainly didn’t understand or at least he didn’t publicly respect the fact that journalists are the fourth branch of American democracy, but seeing massive crowds of people supporting women’s issues such as equal pay and reproductive rights should influence some members of the Republican Congress as well as presidential advisors, including First Daughter Ivanka.
The question remains whether President Trump will continue his growth and change as he has recently shown in changes to his stand on many republican standard positions.
