The second inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump looming overhead, people young and old marched up Main Avenue in Durango and streamed into Buckley Park around noon Saturday.
Despite chilly temperatures in the 20-degree range, with drifting clouds intermittently casting shade overhead, a crowd of about 300 people filed into the park. The lyrics to “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor blasted out of portable speakers brought by the march’s organizers, Indivisible Durango and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango.
“Human rights, justice, love, reason,” the people cried, urged on by an emcee. “Side with science, side with your mind and your heart and your soul.”
The People’s March, held in tandem with similar marches around the country, was a movement of defiance against Trump and his allies, including 13 billionaires (world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk, according to Forbes, among them) who, according to ABC News, Trump tapped for his Cabinet before the former president is scheduled to retake the Oval Office on Monday.
The Biden administration did not escape criticism, either. In an interview on the sidelines, members of the Durango Palestine Solidarity coalition lambasted President Joe Biden’s endorsement and assistance of Israel’s war on the people of Gaza. Organizers, who refused to identify themselves, said Trump’s presidency will probably be worse for the conflict than Biden’s, but Biden’s oversight was terrible.
Current and former Democratic Reps. Katie Stewart and Barbara McLachlan, respectively, joined young activists and Durango High School students in speaking to the crowd.
McLachlan said people must work hard in the coming years to protect groups of people threatened by the Trump administration and its policies, including veterans, police, immigrants, women, seniors, people of color, poor people and men with women family members.
She said many people who purportedly support those groups voted against their own interests in selecting Trump for a second term.
“People who actually say they support these people voted against them,” she said. “For instance, the veterans. We had many veterans who voted for the man who said, ‘Well, I only support those who weren’t captured.’ We have a lot of police who voted for a convicted felon. We have some immigrants who voted for the man who's going to (conduct) deportation raids the first day of office.”
On Saturday, CNN reported Trump plans an “aggressive crackdown” on illegal immigration on his first day in office, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps targeting Denver and Chicago.
Stewart said the times are fraught with despair, and she feels it too. She recited a poem, “Good Bones,” by Maggie Smith, and encouraged kindness over hatred.
“As someone that has been on the receiving end of a lot of hate, it doesn’t help us move forward. So be kind to one another and we can do this,” she said. “We can get through this and we can work together.”
DHS student Maya Fontenot said Trump’s policies evoke painful memories of when people were marginalized and he threatens to strip people’s rights away and to undo social progress.
“It’s about the anxiety that comes from not knowing if society around you will protect you or even see you as a human being,” she said. “ … But what we need now, perhaps more than ever, is to step into action. We cannot let fear make us passive. We must remember. We must remember that we are not powerless, that our voices matter, and that our participation in the democratic process is our shield against those who try to oppress us and undo our progress.”
Some attendees felt glad for the community and solidarity, but their concerns were not assuaged.
One woman, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango who declined to provide her name, said climate change, human rights abuses and the lack of qualified leadership has her worried for the near future.
“I am very concerned about where this country is going with the next administration,” she said. “ … I’m concerned about how (Trump’s) stacking his Cabinet with people who don’t have any qualifications. I’m concerned about the mega billionaires.”
Another attendee, who also declined to provide his name, said he was convinced by a friend to go to the People’s March. The friend told him it was important to him or her, and so he went. It was his first time attending such an event.
“I was worried that the vibes were going to be kind of, like, sad, and it didn’t feel like that at all. It was much more positive,” he said. “It was more fun than I expected.”
He said he was reminded that while opposition exists, whoever is in charge now won’t be in charge forever. Citing the march’s organizers, he said the will of the people is the ultimate driver of change.
“I distinctly remember what happened the last time that Trump was president and I was surprised that people chose that again,” he said. “The mismanagement and incompetence, just like lack of good governance. The lack of good, like, operating principles.”
He added that a government that works well should be a first principle for any administration, and it doesn’t appear to be a priority for Trump and his cohort.
cburney@durangoherald.com