Local women ready to send a message at Women’s March on Washington

Jan. 20--Jenni Faulkner-Jones is joining six of her friends in a two-car caravan to Washington, D.C., this weekend. Their goal: to send a bold message about women's rights.

"My whole life I've seen pictures of civil rights marches in Washington," said Faulkner-Jones, 35, of South Bend. "If ever there was an event like that again, I knew I needed to be one of the marchers."

She and her friends will take part in the Women's March on Washington, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the nation's capitol on Saturday. In South Bend, a companion Women's March will be held in the city starting at 3:30 p.m.

The national march isn't a protest, according to organizers, but rather a way to proclaim to the Donald Trump administration and to the world "that women's rights are human rights." The event's platform includes calls for ending violence and ensuring reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, workers' rights, civil rights, immigrants' rights and the rights of disabled people.

Faulkner-Jones said she was troubled by the language and attitudes Trump displayed during the presidential campaign and since his election, and she worries about the potential impact on her seven-year-old son.

"The issues that are on the grand stage of this march affect all our lives," she said.

Faulkner-Jones, a hairdresser and graduate student who has Type 1 diabetes and is a thyroid cancer survivor, relies on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance coverage. She's not sure how she'll be able to afford insurance if Trump succeeds in his stated plan of revoking the ACA.

"It's the difference between medical bankruptcy and being able to take care of myself," she said.

Mary Celeste Kearney of South Bend also worries about changes to health coverage in the country. Kearney, who will join the Washington march with her husband and several friends, is also concerned about what Trump's priorities could mean for women, Muslims, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community.

"The election demonstrated how undervalued women and girls are in our society," said Kearney, director of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame.

Saint Mary's College sophomore Olivia Garza, from Orange County, Calif., is heading to the march with three other Saint Mary's students. They're riding on a charter bus organized by a Grand Rapids, Mich., church.

"I want to make sure my voice is heard," said Garza, who is of Mexican heritage and has immigrant relatives. She said she's become quite politically active in the past two years and was particularly troubled with Trump's recorded comments about women.

Rachel Berryman, 34, of South Bend, will join the Women's March on Washington with her two teen-age daughters, Kaitlyn Henderson, 15, and Rebeka Henderson, 13. They'll be riding on a bus of area people leaving Friday evening from Elkhart.

"I'm an advocate for anti-bullying. I feel like there's a lot of hate in the world," Berryman said.

Berryman, who considers herself a political independent, said she feels the need to stand up for vulnerable populations, including racial and religious minorities and disabled people.

She wants to help create a better world for her daughters and other young people. Participating in the march, she said, is a sign of hope, like "trying to light a candle for the world."

"As I've gotten older, I've realized that change isn't just going to happen on its own," she said. "You have to be involved."

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