To Putin with Love - A scene from today's Los Angeles Women's March

Hi All,

For those of us on the losing side of the recent US presidential election, today was a much needed demonstration to our government and ourselves that now, more than ever, we must become aware and united. A lot of the energy missing in the election reared up in a sea of pink pussy hats, and did they ever roar. Rallies occurred in over sixty countries today, and countless cities in the USA. In Los Angeles we were somewhere between half and three quarters of a million. I saw maybe 2/3 women and 1/3 men of all ages and colors.

It was noisy and cramped and happy and bewilderingly polite. I only saw one woman push her way through the crowd, and clearly she was a local annoyed at all these idiots blocking her streets. A couple of guys seemed to want to start a fight, but found no one willing or interested. Ignored, they just slipped quietly into the crowd. Amazingly there were no (ZERO) arrests at the Los Angeles event.

While President Trump's Day One press briefing was to accuse the "evil press" of deflating his true record breaking innauguration numbers, millions of the rest of us did in fact show up, stand up, march, and say that we count too. I doubt the president will hear us, but undoubtably some in the halls of government will. We are Americans, we love our country, our freedoms, and democracy, and we're not going to let Donald and his buddies have their way with them without a fight.

The image here is not a phantogram, just a traditional 3-D image, taken with a Fuji W3. "To Putin with Love" was one of my favorite signs today, showcasing our Donald in blue eye shadow, red lipstick and rouge. The two most common chants I heard today were "Love Trumps Hate" and "Women's Rights Are Human Rights," as well as lots of racier ones.

A Chinese curse suggests "... may you live in interesting times," and so it is to be.

Barry Rothstein

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