PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
From left, Maggie Larkin, Christine Sloss and Jenny Armini, all from Marblehead, enter the Boston Common to attend the Boston Women’s March for America on Saturday.
BOSTON (AP) — Thousands of people converged on Boston Common on Saturday to march in protest of Republican President Donald Trump and stand in solidarity with society’s most vulnerable people.
The Boston Women’s March for America was part of a nationwide series of post-inauguration marches and rallies. Organizers and police estimated the crowd at more than 100,000.
Scores of women wore pink, cat-eared, knit hats and others held signs, including one that said, “Love Not Hate Makes America Great.”
Swampscott’s Jo Ann Simons, CEO of Northeast Arc, wants to live in a country where everybody has a voice.
Speaking Friday afternoon from the airport, Simons traveled to the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington. Nahant resident RoAnn Costin, the President, Treasurer and Secretary of Reservoir Capital Management, Inc. also made the trip to the nation’s capital.
Her reasons for attending the march aren’t political, she said. It’s to “make sure that we illustrate that there’s room at the table for everybody.”
Simons is marching for women, but she’s also marching for people with disabilities.
“Every day is a precious day, and I want to make sure we are moving forward,” she said.
Marblehead resident Dr. Allyson Preston, an Ob/Gyn at North Shore Medical Center, has taken part in marches since the 1970s. She also joined Saturday’s march in Boston.
“We as a nation, not just women, need to make it very clear that some of the things that (Trump) mentioned during the presidential campaign … are not what we believe,” she said before the march.
Dr. Preston cited groups who were “maligned” during the campaign: women, minorities and people with disabilities. But she doesn’t place all of the blame on Trump. He was an “instigator” who “hit a nerve,” she said, prompting more division.
“We clearly have a lot of work to do,” Dr. Preston said. She was joined by her sister, Ricky Preston, from Lynn, a nurse/practitioner at Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for challenging any Republican efforts to overturn abortion rights, take away healthcare from millions of Americans and tear apart immigrant families through deportation.
“Donald Trump’s campaign was about attacks on women, attacks on African-Americans, attacks on Latinos, attacks on religious groups, attacks on immigrants,” the Massachusetts Democrat told the crowd. “We come here to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to make clear we are here, we will not be silent, we will not play dead, we will fight for what we believe in.”
A mile-long procession was to follow several speeches. Police said the rally was peaceful with no incidents.
Leah Cathers, of Lowell, attended the march with her sister. She told The Boston Globe she believes the country is going in the wrong direction.
“I’m horrified by the fact that people have forgotten that these issues are about human beings, whether it’s the Muslim population or refugees,” she said.
Item digital content editor David Wilson contributed to this report. He can be reached at dwilson@itemlive.com.