On January 21, the day after Donald J. Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, a series of marches broke out around the world. The Women’s March on Washington was the biggest march with over 500,000 attendees in D.C. and over 5 million in multiple cities in the U.S. and 33 countries across the globe. Our Grizzly family was fortunate enough to have Megan Blash, a social science teacher at Godinez, attend the March on Washington.

With the support of her husband and women from a support group on Facebook, Blash decided to take a leap of faith and purchase her plane ticket to D.C. Being politically involved her whole life, it only felt right. “I wanted to be part of history,” Blash said. The march was originally a march for women’s rights, but it expanded to much more including: human rights, LGBTQ rights, immigration, healthcare, freedom of religion, and much more.

“The reason why I was marching is I wanted to show that women have a degree of solidarity, that maybe was underestimated and I was marching with all women for all women, for all of their concerns,” said Blash. She also added that some of her biggest concerns are insurance coverage and the message that is sent to young girls and to vulnerable minorities that are under attack with the new administration.

Blash hopes it sends a message to officials that women are powerful and an important voice. “It is a call to action in daily life to be mindful of what you can do, to support each other and to resist when necessary,” said Blash.

Blash described the crowd as being so big that “when the actual march was to start no one could move and were told to start walking and taking alternate routes.” She felt as if she “was on a street with what seemed like hundreds of thousands of people all marching and chanting,” yet it was peaceful and respectful enough that when a “caravan of police vans came through, they all parted like the red sea and clapped and yelled thank you to the officers inside.”

“Being politically involved is really empowering and when you get a chance to do something you should do it. I am just really glad that I was able to do this and share my experience with my students and I can’t wait to be able to tell my daughter someday.”