Intentions clear for those who marched

Editor:

There is need to clarify the rationale behind and reasons for the Jan. 21 Women's Marches around the country, including the large march here in Wooster.

The women married and single, the men family and single, partners, students, veterans, seniors, and children who marched on Jan. 21 recognize Donald Trump was elected. He is our president. We honor the dignity of his office. And that's the point — people marched because they are dismayed with our new president's crass behavior, his boasting, his insecurity, his lack of dignity, his knee-jerk lies, his incessant talk about himself, his hubris, his lack of government experience, his adoration of power, his intentions, his never-ending campaigning. Marchers fear what those behaviors mean for America at home and abroad.

We who marched came together asking our government to unequivocally address climate change, accept science, ensure health care for all, promulgate clean energy policies and conservation, ensure justice reform, immigration reform, the opportunity for good education, fair and living wages. Marchers see an ugly lack of cooperation and statesmanship in government, incessant attempts to rob women of their reproductive rights, the ignoring of separation of church and state, the rejection of tolerance and good will, a turn away from empathy, from understanding.

Marchers fear loss of liberty, losing their right to live freely as they see fit, the waning of fair government. Most of all, they know history has taught, over and over through time, that democracy is a fragile and brittle business, that citizens must protect against the simplistic ravings of those who would impose their will, who call for change that only benefits those in control. Marchers know the immorality of silence.

The world is changing at bewildering and accelerating speeds. Understanding the complex global forces affecting our lives is not straightforward. When we are attacked by fanatics, foreign and domestic, when countries practice predatory trade policies, when automation replaces workers, when companies leave for offshore, when technology moves beyond our experience, we are dismayed, fearful.

We the January marchers ask for secure employment, economic confidence not economic insecurity, a safer country and world, freedom, health, racial justice, peace. We ask for recognition as equals in an increasingly unequal economic and cultural order. We the January marchers wish for and will march again for the same things all citizens expect from our leaders: an expanding, kind and just America for all.

Erwin Riedner

Wooster