Post-Inauguration “Sister March” planned for Fernandina

Anne H. Oman
Reporter-At-Large
January 12, 2017 1:00 a.m.

Ten women have gathered in Linda Green’s art studio at the Shady Ladies’ art gallery on South Eighth Street and are taking up poster boards, markers, glue sticks, and cut-outs of stars, hearts, arrows and other symbols – supplies for which each has chipped in five dollars. Their mission: making placards for the Amelia Island Solidarity March on January 21. The local event will begin in Central Park at 10 am and end at the foot of Centre Street at approximately 11:45.

The local march is one of many “Sister Marches” inspired by Women’s March on Washington that will take place the day after the Trump inauguration. According to that group’s website, Sister Marches are scheduled for the day that day in nearly every state and in more than a dozen foreign countries.

Ms. Green, who hosted the sign-making event for local marchers, will be going to Washington for the main march.

“I’m going because I want to experience the energy of people standing in solidarity for women’s rights — not just for women’s rights, but human rights,” she explained. It’s to show solidarity for people whose rights are in jeopardy.”

Several of the Amelia Island residents traveling to Washington are taking a chartered bus from Jacksonville. The bus, which is sold out, will leave Jacksonville at 6:21 pm on January 20 and arrive in Washington the next morning. The return trip – another all-nighter – will leave Washington January 21 at 8 p.m. Cost per person is $215.

”It will be a long 48 hours,” said Penny Reid, who will be taking the bus. Ms. Reid is also knitting pink hats as part of the Pussyhat Project. The goal is to produce more than a million pink hats to be worn by the marchers in Washington.

“It is a way of having a visual, colorful statement,” she said.  “Women are knitting them to donate or to wear themselves.  There’s a long history of crafts being used for political activism and to help people in need.”

The hats are also considered by some to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to a comment about women made by Donald Trump that was revealed in the Access Hollywood tape released during the Presidential campaign. According to the Pussyhat Project website, “…yes, “pussy” is also a derogatory term for female genitalia. We chose that loaded word for our project because we want to reclaim the term as a means of empowerment.”

Like many recent political movements, the Women’s March was born and nurtured on social media. According to the Washington Post, it had its genesis in Hawaii, where a retired woman attorney created an event page on Facebook for a march she hoped would happen. By the next morning, ten thousand people had signed up. Now, planners expect as many as a million marchers.

Similarly, the Amelia Island march started with posts on Facebook and Action Network by local resident Christine-Anne Platel. Ms. Platel said in a telephone interview that about a hundred people have signed up on those networks, and that she expects as many as 200 marchers.

Jennett Baker, a registered nurse and the Executive Director of CREED (Coalition for the Reduction/Elimination of Ethnic Disparities in Health), which puts out a monthly health newsletter, is rallying the African-American community to support the march.

“We’re getting the word out to local churches, and we have quite a few African-American women – and men—who say they will march,” she said in a telephone interview. “We’re even hearing from people in Camden County and around Jacksonville.”

Ms. Baker discounted talk of a rift between African-Americans and white women over the march, as reported in Tuesday’s New York Times.

“That had to do with the event in Washington,” she said. “At this local level, I’ve never heard anything about a rift.

Ms. Platel’s posts attracted both adherents and negative comments, which ran the gamut from “unnecessary and irrelevant” to such lewd entries as “Seriously, let’s heckle the f__ out of them.”

Like all “Sister Marchers,” the Fernandina group has agreed to abide by the rules established by the Women’s March on Washington, which include prohibitions on violence (physical or verbal), destruction of property, alcohol, drugs or weapons – or anything that could be construed as a weapon.

“That means no sticks, since they could be used as weapons,” said Mary Libby, an artist and manager of the gallery.

Instead, the women will carry hand-held placards.

Diane Shook, a graphic designer and former creative director for large advertising agency in Jacksonville, advised the sign makers that “lettering should be in black — and five words, no more.”

Artist Linda Green exhorted the group to “start with white for readability and put a bright color on that if you want to.”
“Channel your inner elementary school,” she added.

Among the slogans:

“Climate Change is Real.” “There is No Plan (et) B.” “We Stand Together in Peace.” And a quote from Pope Francis: “ Include the Excluded and Preach Peace.”

“Most of the sayings for the signs came from the Women’s March website,” said Ms. Green. “There’s nothing remotely partisan.”

As they wielded scissors and glue sticks, the women answered a reporter’s questions about why they are participating.

Charlotte Fries said she will march “to show that a lot of us feel the same way, in solidarity with women’s rights”.

Beth Angelo, who wasn’t sure whether she would march, said: “I really want to see women’s rights recognized. Everybody should have rights. I don’t want them to take away Planned Parenthood.”

Rose Gladney, Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, said she plans to march in Fernandina “because we want to continue and promote human rights for everybody. Planned Parenthood needs to be continued. We don’t want Roe v Wade to be reversed. We lived through the fifties and sixties, and we don’t want to go back there.”

“I’m from Alabama,” said Marcia Winter, who taught at the School of Social Work at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. “Jeff Sessions will take us back to the fifties.”

Senator Sessions (R-Alabama) is President-Elect Trump’s pick for Attorney-General.

Several women had stories about the bad old days, when women could only aspire to be secretaries, nurses or teachers, and had a hard time getting into medical school or law school. There was even a story about a teacher who had to sit on the principal’s lap when she wanted her pay check.

“Not going back says it all,” said Linda Green.

Most of the women interviewed had scant or no previous history of activism.

“The last time I marched was in the early 80s, in a rally against nuclear weapons,” recalled Ms. Green.

So why now?

“I think we’ve been blinded by privilege, blinded by what we thought was normal,” said Professor Gladney. “We didn’t realize what non-privileged people are living through. But if you’re a white person who’s also a women, or gay, you can begin to relate to the problems of people who are minority, or poor, of physically disabled.”

Is anyone here a Republican? asked a reporter.

There were no responses, but Ms. Green said that “all are welcome.”

“This is not an anti-Trump march, but a pro-human march,” she stressed.

But, said Mary Libby: “If Hilary had won, we wouldn’t be doing this.”

Attempts to get input for this story from local Republican Party officials were unsuccessful. Email and phone inquiries to the Chairman of the Republican Party of Nassau County and to the President and other officers of the Federated Republican Women of Nassau County were not answered by press time.

Nationwide, 54 percent of women voted for Clinton, while 42 percent opted for Trump, according to the Pew Research Center. In Florida, the women’s vote was 50 percent for Clinton and 46 percent for Trump, according to the Miami Herald. No statistics are available on how women in Nassau County voted in the Presidential election. But, according to the Supervisor of Elections, of the 31,467 women who voted in the Presidential election, 17,671 (or 56 percent) were registered Republicans, while 8,020 (or 25 percent) were registered Democrats. Another 4,904 (or 16 percent) had no party affiliation.

Editor’s Note: Anne H. Oman relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications.