The Unite Against the War on Women Rally and March by Phillip Reynes

The Unite Against the War on Women Rally and March by Phillip Reynes

What a great day, I thought to myself as I walked to Civic Center Park, to hold a rally and march. The air was crisp and the sun was out and it seemed as the sun climbed into the sky that peoples spirits climbed with it. I passed the occupy site as I made my way to the park and there where only a few people. Most had already made there way to the amphitheater where the rally was to start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The band started up as I arrived. The band was quite good, called the Foxfield Four, and made a sound that was richer and more deserving of more then just four musicians. I found myself wishing that they had been able to play longer then their time allowed. I meant to come back to the bands table and get a CD but sadly I was unable to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There where a good number of tables set up with people registering others to vote, the IWW, A Marxist study group, and two different political candidates selling themselves as progressives. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits. People chatted at the tables and talked politics.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The theme of the rally was very simple. The rally was organized by a group of women and thus qualifies as something that is indeed grassroots. The organizes started planning this rally in response to Rush Limbaugh's personal attacks on law student Sandra Fluke as well as Foster Friess's comments that women should, “put an aspirin between your knees.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the Guttmacher Institute more then 1,100 separate provisions were presented in state legislatures across the country in just 2011 with the aim of limiting a woman’s family planning and health care options! Sadly 135 of these socially backwards laws passed in the more backward regions of this country. Funy how the tea party who campaigned in 2010 on a jobs platform then abandoned jobs to rail against woman's healthcare. Maybe it's because they have nothing to offer the middle class and poor in their quest to benefit the rich. After all if that's all you have then social issues like woman's health are a good distraction from the fail that is the right today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crowd was a bigger one then I have seen in a while and I would guess there where 1,200 to 1,500 people gathered by the time the rally started. The Speakers list was weightier then most of the rallies I have been to in the last six month and included the following.

Human rights attorney Beth Klein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musical comedy from “The Raging Grannies” These grannies where more then just good they where great!!

Rosemary Harris Lytle, the Colorado NAACP state president.

House Representatives Crianta Duran and Lois Court.

Award Wining Poetry Slam Artists Suzi Q and Jen Rinaldi.

State Representative and US Congressional Candidate Joe Miklosi. Miklosi said; “Extremist in Congress.....are deliberately increasing the coast of health care for millions of women. At the same time they have let the Violence against women act expire. It's an outrage.”

US House of Representatives Candidate Dave Anderson

State Senators Morgan Carroll

State Senate President and US Congressional Candidate Brandon Shaffer.

All the speakers where treated well, no, ecclesiastically is a better word. You could see that a lot of the women in the crowd where not just upset at the GOP but had in some ways become, rightfully so, alarmed at the vigor in which woman's health issues have been politicized. You could see it in the signs they carried and the body art the sported to protest this war on women.

The crowd was energized and happy. It was a very good rally for a bunch of capitalist democrats and I hope a step towards exposing the Christian right as well as the conservative movement in general as the backward thinkers they truly are.

AttachmentSize
Occupy site.jpg5.78 MB
The Foxfield Four.jpg4.56 MB
band Table.jpg5.64 MB
The IWW Table.jpg5.62 MB
Fuck a Senator.jpg2.39 MB
Protect Mom.jpg2.51 MB
Bang a Politician.jpg3.01 MB
Whores.jpg1.98 MB
Autonomy.jpg3.64 MB
crowd cheers.jpg801.07 KB
Marching for Granddaughter.jpg4.58 MB
Raging Grannies.jpg6.03 MB
Rape.jpg1.59 MB