KAILUA-KONA — Frustration.
Anger.
This is not OK.
Thousands thronged Kailua Village Sunday for the 2018 Women’s March for the second anniversary of a national movement that is blasting those messages and more because they detest the direction the White House is leading the country.
Everyone, many during Kona’s turnout said, is equal, and should be treated as such.
And as the group paraded from Alii Drive, up to Kuakini Highway, and circled back to Hale Halawai for the second rendition of the massive rally, it was a message that was hard not to hear.
Part-time Kona resident Jodie Draut, as she marched up Kuakini Highway, said ““It drives me insane,” how she feels the last year went for the United States.
“I’m terrified,” said Glory Quiggle, wearing a cardboard sign that said, “Resist.” “People are suffering, humanity is suffering.”
“It’s enough,” said Simon Hamilton, “to make me feel a lot of despair.”
But it’s a direction many in the crowd said they feel the country as a whole can change. They won’t, as illustrated by the nationwide march turnout itself, stand idly by. They’re taking heart that things will soon be different.
“It’s good to come out and meet like minds,” said Kau’i Losalio, of Kailua-Kona, who was carrying a sign that read, “Respect our voices, respect our choices,” and said she’s optimistic for the future. She said seeing the turnout gives her hope and pride. “I think our future will be better because we’re here.”
She said one of her biggest issues was with lawmakers dictating women’s reproductive rights through legislation. It’s a fundamental woman’s right to decide what she wants to do with a pregnancy, she said, and the fact that mostly men decide, through political back-and-forth, what avenues women are allowed is mind-boggling.
“It shouldn’t be a fight to begin with,” she said of the freedom to choose. “It should be given to us.”
Walking next to Losalio up the highway as passing cars honked support was Jessica Conner, carrying a sign that read, “Our children deserve better.”
She said one of her greater fears is the thought of the next generation growing up in a country where the current political division in the norm, a division she said makes her sad. But, she said, she’s optimistic things will change.
“I know that people are coming together to support something that’s so amazing,” she said. “People are speaking up instead of silence. Silence doesn’t help anyone.”
Signs were witty: “Pussycats grab back,” and serious, “This is what Hawaii looks like,” a nod to the diverse makeup of the crowd.
Trump has been a lightning rod of controversy in his first year of office, a once-upon-a-time businessman GOP dark-horse candidate who won the presidential election and has been active implementing change since — creating a tax reform and targeting the previous administration’s legislation such as Obamacare. But on Trump’s campaign trail, video aired where he said grabbing women in a sexually aggressive maner when one is rich is OK, and another where he mocked a disabled reporter. Recently he reportedly called some African countries shitholes.
Nationally, the Women’s March drew millions, as it did last year. Los Angeles had around 300,000, Chicago too, and New York City saw around 200,000 people take part. Hilo, which had its march Saturday, as most of the nation did, had around 2,000. Organizers locally weren’t sure on Sunday, but the crowd looked to be near what last year’s Kona turnout of 3,800.
“It makes me proud to live here,” Hamilton said of the numbers.
“Many great things came out of this year,” said Lulie Cottle, event organizer who spoke to the cheering crowd after the march, but articulated beforehand how much negativity she felt came from the White House during that same year. “Many people, especially women, found the courage to stand up and speak out.”
She said seeing such a turnout gives her hope that voters will change the country’s direction during the 2018 mid-term elections, a sentiment echoed by many there, including Teresa Shook, the Maui woman who, on Election Day 2016, took to Facebook as the returns came in for Trump and organized what became the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., as well as others across the nation.
She was at the Kona rally Sunday, as she was at Hilo’s the day before.
“Our work in 2018 is we’re going to march on the polls,” she told the crowd. “We’re going to bring our power to the polls and we’re going to flip Congress.”