by Jeffrey Escano // Staff Writer
Half of a million. 500,000. That’s about the population of Long Beach. The city is around 50 square miles. Now, imagine all of those people, imagine taking all of them and cramming them into Downtown Los Angeles, a part of L.A. that’s around only 5 square miles.
Well, that’s what actually happened on January 20, the Women’s March. 500,000 people, mostly women but not entirely women, marched to the streets of L.A.’s heart to stand up for what was in theirs. Issues that were being protested for were immigration policies, racial divides, and equal rights for people that fall under the LGBT banner, among others.
Celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, Viola Davis, and Natalie Portman attended the event, and while L.A. had the largest amount of people show up for the event, it wasn’t the only city to do so. All together, in between 1.6 and 2.5 million people marched across U.S. cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., with a very impressive showing by San Francisco, which had about 100,000 protesters and is a city of close to 900,000 people. While this year’s numbers are a big drop from last year where over 4 million people protested, it is still a very big and very encouraging number.
Asides from the U.S., countries such as Canada, France, and Germany also participated in this event.
The Women’s March is a very powerful movement and it’s one that people here in Carson High School themselves feel strongly about.
Liliana Rodriguez, a 12th grader from the Academy of Education and Empowerment is one of those people.
“It makes women feel empowered and like they have a voice. It brings women together. There will be future events like this until women don’t have to protest about equality anymore,” said Liliana.
Mark Villegas, Carson High School 12th grader, feels very strongly about the future for this movement.
“I hope they do [have future marches]. If this march didn’t work, I hope they keep marching every year to stand for what they believe in.” Mark stated.
We live in a time period where while we’ve done so much to improve, we still have an incredibly long way to go. It’s truly inspiring to see all these women come out and come together to stand for what they believe in and generate these numbers in the process. 500,000 people flooding the streets of DTLA is something most people surely thought wouldn’t have happened, but it did because of the will of the people and what they believe in. With powerful movements like this happening today, if more happen in later years, and if women keep marching for all the things that they believe in, a change will come. This special event is something that can not and will not be ignored!