For those who cannot attend the event in Washington, D.C., there will be an opportunity to demonstrate support for the Women’s March on Washington at a Friday event.
Individuals from the Maurer School of Law invited the Bloomington community to participate in a send-off rally before 56 students, professors and members of the community take an overnight bus to Washington, D.C, for the Women’s March on Washington.
The send-off rally will take place at 6:45 p.m. Friday at the Maurer School of Law’s Moot Court Room. It will include short speeches from student leaders, faculty and community leaders, including Shelli Yoder, Dawn Johnsen, Aviva Orenstein and Susan Sandberg.
At Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington, thousands of people are expected to gather in Washington, D.C., to send a message to the government after incoming President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The send-off rally in Bloomington is about creating solidarity among the Bloomington community, said Francesca Hoffman, third-year law student and lead organizer.
According to an outreach email, the marchers leaving on the Maurer bus were brought together with “messages of hope, justice, and determined opposition.”
Hoffman said the march is important to her because it involves advocating for issues like reproductive rights, affordable healthcare and equality in education and the workplace.
It is wonderful that the group is going to Washington, D.C., for the march, Hoffman said, but it is also important to remember the work that needs to be done in Indiana.
The send-off rally is a way for people who are dedicated to issues of women’s rights to participate even if they cannot travel to Washington, assisting organizer Samantha von Ende said.
“The point is to concentrate support in the Bloomington area,” she said. “The march is a powerful way to demonstrate how our interests bring people together.”
Von Ende said the national march can be a way to use common interests to oppose restrictive policies.
The Women’s March on Washington is based on eight principles — reproductive rights, LGBT rights, worker’s rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, environmental justice and ending violence — according to its website.
“We can’t lose sight of why we are going,” Hoffman said. “We can’t lose momentum gained from the rally and the march.”
