On Saturday, January 21, news programs were filled with Women’s March images from downtown San Diego and Washington DC, but some caught a glimpse of a similar version taking place at the Seacrest Retirement community in Encinitas, CA.
NBC News7 reported that not all seniors in San Diego’s Women’s March made it to Civic Center. Instead, dozens of 80- and 90-year-old men and women staged their own event.
There 50 seniors did a loop around the facility, expressing their own opinions of issues that would affect generations to come. Walkers didn’t keep them from holding up signs similar to those at downtown’s Civic Center where police estimate 30,000 to 40,000 men women children and even dogs marched.
The Seacrest seniors’ signs bore slogans similar to those seen across the United States: “Our rights are not up for grabs!” “Let’s be an example to the world” and “Make America think again!” emblazoned poster boards.
Trudi Kranitz, a relative of Love2Live Office Manager Frani Bloom, told NBC News7, “I’m doing this for my children and my grandchildren,” all of whom were marching in their home cities.
Another Seacrest resident explained, “I want to be part than something bigger than myself.” When asked by newscaster Alex Presha why the seniors wanted to march rather than send a donation, one replied, “We’re old ladies and we like to be a part of the world!” Their activism is an inspiration.
370 public marches took place around the United States to send a message to the new administration that a portion of the American population wants the gains made in gay, women’s, immigrant rights as well as the active and perpetual protection of the environment to persevere. Here in San Diego, police estimated the crowd moving from Civic Center to the Administration Building on Pacific Highway at between 30,000 and 40,000. Washington turnout reached 470,000 according to crowd scientists, nearly three times the 170,000 at the Trump Inauguration. The seniors at the San Diego’s Women’s March were not all downtown. Perhaps next year, San Diego Women’s Marches will take place all over the county!