The Lima News, Ohio, Amy Eddings column

Jan. 26--Wendy Chappell-Dick has a strong memory of attending the 1982 nuclear freeze rally in New York City. The vast parade and rally overwhelmed Central Park and midtown Manhattan. It's believed to be the largest protest in New York City history, drawing 1 million people.

"I have a memory of holding on to my mom's hand and my brother's hand and not being able to see them," said Chappell-Dick by phone from her home in Bluffton. "It was just a crushing crowd."

She was 13 years old. She had traveled to New York City on a charter bus from Bluffton with other Mennonites and with people who weren't Mennonite, people of all ages and races and faiths who were worried about nuclear proliferation and the Reagan administration's plan to win a "protracted nuclear war" against the Soviet Union.

"I remember the smell of the bus and the strangers on the bus, and we were all going to this thing," she said. "And I remember we had piña colada yogurt and we had to brush our teeth at the station and I'm just having all these memories!" she said, her words coming in a rush.

The memories came as Chappell-Dick chartered two buses from Bluffton to Washington, D.C., for the women's march there Saturday, the very first full day of Donald Trump's presidency. She filled them both, taking 100 people -- women, mostly, young and old, but men and boys, too -- to Washington.

Their objectives varied. At an organizational meeting before the trip, some told me they were marching for their daughters' futures. Some said they were concerned about Trump the Campaigner's vulgar comments about and to women, and they didn't want that to continue. Some, Chappell-Dick told me, were for abortion rights. Some were for the life of the unborn. Most everyone expressed a desire to "be a part of something."

Chappell-Dick knows what that feels like.

"I was trying to make a list of all the major protests I've been to in my life," she said. "I can safely say I've protested every president since 1969 with my family! I've grown up very comfortable in this setting. It made it neat to travel with people who hadn't done this before."

She went to the women's march with her 20-year-old daughter, Sara. She said the march had a "family feel."

"I know they're showing video of Madonna swearing," she said, "but I didn't see that. I saw a lot of lumpy, frumpy women with their kids."

President Trump responded to the women's march by tweeting, "Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote?" He later added, "Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views."

That's all Wendy Chappell-Dick wanted to do.

"That march in New York City in 1982 did influence the direction of our country," she said. "The difference in this march is, this protest was not what is going to influence our country. What's going to influence our country is being active in a regular way in our daily lives."

She pointed out that there were 15 uncontested elections in Allen County last fall. She said that should change. More people should run for office. More people should get involved in the issues that matter to them. More people should practice what Chappell-Dick is calling "political hygiene."

"Brush your teeth, wash your hair, call your congressman," she said. It's what she learned as a kid, holding hands with her mom and brother at the No Nukes march in 1982. It's what she hopes she passed on to the young men and women who stood with her -- there was no marching, there were too many people -- on the Mall in Washington.

"My parents instilled in us that you get hope by protesting," she said. "It's not a place where you're scared or hopeless. It's a place where you're empowered and lifted up. When you take to the streets, with hundreds and thousands of like-minded people, that's when you're strong."

Reach Amy Eddings at 567-242-0379 or on Twitter, @lima_eddings.

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