January 17, 2019 600 AM
ALPINE – If you can’t make it to Washington D.C to join the third annual National Women’s March this weekend- fret not! A gathering of activists under the moniker, Women’s March Big Bend, have skillfully organized a Sister March to take place in Alpine on Saturday, January 19 – hosted in an attempt to band together in the spirit amass of marchers nationwide!
The Big Bend Women’s March will commence at 11am Saturday at the Alpine Civic Center, 100 N 13th St., and make its way through town toward its destination at the Brewster County Courthouse where a rally is set to follow. Amid national concerns regarding inclusivity of the Women’s March, one of the local event organizers, Cyndi Wimberly of Alpine, expressed and emphasized a particular focus on inclusivity – pronouncing that the group “has tried very hard to make this year’s event an exceptionally inclusive march – EVERYONE IS WELCOME”!
The Alpine march has seen steady growth over the three years of its existence, boasting a total of 200-300 participants last year.
Nationally speaking, the 2017 and 2018 Women’s Marches were not just isolated occurrences: a full-on political movement and Women’s March organization has since grown out of the marches. According to the Women’s March Organization, in 2018 alone, the organization has been on the front lines protesting the family separation actions at the US border and the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and it has no intentions of slowing down anytime soon. In fact, these events have spurred even more impassioned participants to get involved in the organization and the 2019 march.
According to the National Women’s March website, “The mission of Women’s March is to harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change. Women’s March is a women-led movement providing intersectional education on a diverse range of issues and creating entry points for new grassroots activists & organizers to engage in their local communities through trainings, outreach programs and events. Women’s March is committed to dismantling systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance and building inclusive structures guided by self-determination, dignity and respect.”
The march this year is not solely a “protest,” per say, but also a celebration – a recognition of the current #Women’sWave, which refers, in part, to the 100-plus women who won seats in the U.S House of Representatives, easily shattering the previous record and storming the government in the recent midterm elections.
This progress “is cool and positive,” Wimberly said, referring to the state of the current #Women’sWave, “but we still have a long way to go.”
Organizers encourage participants to arrive around 10:40am, as the march will begin at 11am!
There will be satellite groups of powerful people marching in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Chicago, New York City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, and thanks to organizers like Wimberly and the Big Bend Women’s March core team, many smaller towns inside, outside and in between.
