In response to inauguration, students attend Women’s March
January 20, 2017
As seniors celebrate their last day at CESJDS on Jan. 20, President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in at his inauguration as the 45th president of the United States just 25 miles away.
In response to Trump’s election, a protest march in Washington, D.C. was organized via social media and will take place on Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration. According to the Women’s March on Washington’s Facebook page as of Jan 16., 200,000 people are going to the event.
The official statement from the Women’s March website said that the goal of the march is to unite all people who have felt marginalized by events of the recent election.
“In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore,” the statement reads.
At least 20 JDS students are planning to attend the march, one of whom is senior Samantha Haas. Throughout the election season, Haas was disturbed by Trump’s rhetoric towards women and his treatment of them in the past. She hopes that by going to the march, she and others attending can draw attention to the fight for women’s equality.
“I think that part of it is to bring more awareness to women’s rights and how we’re in a way not being treated equally,” Haas said. “But also to show that a movement can be made without a man’s help.”
Haas is excited to protest in a peaceful way, and believes that the march “is just one step towards the greatness that women can achieve.”
Junior Dalia Handelman will join Haas at the march, her first time going to a political protest. Handelman finds the march personally important because she views it as a way to express her opinion about Trump’s misogynistic comments, as well as his discriminatory statements about Muslims and other minorities.
“Everything he’s said about keeping Muslims out of the country, I think it resembles a lot of things like if you look back at Nazi Germany in terms of oppressing and discriminating a certain religion for made-up things,” Handelman said.
Unlike Haas and Handelman, sophomore Talia Shemony plans to attend Trump’s inauguration and not the Women’s March. Shemony never supported Trump, but as a Republican she is excited for the new government.
Shemony does not support what Trump has said about women and immigrants, and believes that a video of Trump making profane comments about sexually harassing women is “disgusting.” Despite his remarks, Shemony thinks it is important that the country accepts Trump as the next president.
“We have to get past [Trump’s comments] and focus on the country, and focus on the things that are really important rather than focus on comments made 10 years ago that don’t affect his policy on immigration and things like that,” Shemony said.
Shemony also said that she was frustrated by the protests against Trump because he has yet to take any actions in office. Handelman, however, thinks that it is still important that the message behind the Women’s March is publicized.
“It is a really big protest so hopefully it goes on the news and spreads the word so Trump knows that we are not okay with the way he speaks about women and the way he plans to act toward women or has in the past,” Handelman said.
The photo from the Women’s March on Washington was taken and added after this article was published.