Lin Woodrich was never political up until after the 2016 presidential election.
She would go through her voter’s pamphlet, circle the candidates that she wanted and put it aside. She said that she would always trust that it would be fine. Now, she says that that’s not a possibility anymore.
“Never again,” Woodrich said. “Never again. I am so politically active now. I breathe politics.”
Woodrich is part of the advocacy group Indivisible Eugene, which is holding the Women’s March for Action on Jan. 20 in downtown Eugene. The event will begin with a short rally at the federal courthouse on East 8th Avenue at 1 p.m., and the mile-long march will begin at 1:30 p.m., ending at 3 p.m. with food and entertainment at Whirled Pies Downtown on 199 W. 8th Ave.
“I don’t put up with any nonsense,” said Woodrich, who is part of the team managing this year’s march. “I work with Indivisible with my different teams ‘till midnight every night now. I mean, I am always on. It’s just something that has to be done.”
Karen Myers was one of the organizers of a women’s march that was not organized by Indivisible Eugene in Eugene in 2017. The 2017 march was started by a group of about fifteen to twenty women in reaction to the results of the 2016 presidential election.
“There was a lot of anger, dismay, uncertainty, and people decided they wanted to be active,” Myers said. “Perhaps three of the women actually had a history of being activists. Most of us were just women who said, ‘I don’t want to just do nothing. I want to turn my feelings into something really positive.’”
The 2017 march was organized in about seven weeks, and despite numerous obstacles — ice and snowstorms, holidays and illnesses — the group was successful. The march had thousands of participants — “The largest march in Eugene since women were marching for the vote,” said Myers, attributing the line to Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, who spoke at the 2017 march.
Rep. DeFazio will be speaking at the short rally before the march again this year. More Power: The Eugene/Springfield NAACP Youth Council, the owner of Crosscultural Now, Beatriz Robles Kieser, and the field director for Planned Parenthood, Nichi Masters Linder, will also be speaking.
Lin Woodrich (right) and Karen Myers are two organizers of the Women’s March this year. (Ryan Nguyen/Emerald)
There will be an ASL translator at the rally for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Keiser, also a speaker, will be following each speech with a translated Spanish version. Route guides, clearly identifiable by their blue baseball caps, will guide marchers; street medics and legal observers will also be available during the march.
And just like last year, the march does not have a corporate sponsor. Both groups reached into their own pockets to fund their respective marches.
Myers said that one of the purposes of this year’s march is to promote “change, civility and decency,” and she said that she thinks people of all backgrounds are becoming more aware of the unhealthy emotional direction of the nation and the lack of civility and decency in politics. The theme of the march this year is #powertothepolls and was designed to emphasize the power of local participation in politics. The Twitter hashtag for the march is #womensmarcheug.
“It feels very poisoned,” Myers said. “That’s why putting my energy into persistence, going the other direction, is my antidote to what I see going on right now. I think that we see this when groups come together, when you’re surrounded by people on the streets of Eugene who are walking together, carrying all different signs with their positions in their groups and their concerns and their issues. And you realize what incredible power people have when they are united.”
In a release, Indivisible Eugene stated that “a wave of progressive state and national elected officials are poised to counteract the dangerous agenda of the Trump administration.” Indivisible Eugene also wrote that the Women’s March for Action will celebrate the progress made toward combating prejudice, corruption, misogyny and hate.
“This year, a sense of national dread is being replaced with a national sense of optimism that the pendulum is swinging back toward democracy, civility, fairness and decency,” continued Indivisible Eugene in the release.
“What I see coming out from the top of this country is not something I would want to promote and have my children, my grandchildren emulating,” Myers said. “I taught eighth grade for a number of years; I know an eighth-grade bully when I see one.”
The rally will have four speeches as well as two songs, one performed by Domi Stauber, Indivisible Eugene’s member support coordinator, and the other performed by Eugene dance group Rise!Dance!Resist!. The march will have four different chants and the whole march, which winds around Eugene, will be led by Samba Já, a Eugene bateria — a 15-or-more member Brazilian percussion ensemble — along with a brass band.
A plethora of local organizations are also supporting and/or participating in the march, including UO College Democrats, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, the Raging Grannies, Community Alliance Lane County, the band Crosscurrent, Take Action Eugene and the Democratic Party of Lane County.
“Many of us came together to do something positive,” Myers said of the 2017 march. “There were definitely obstacles, but there isn’t anything a group of women can’t do before noon if they just want to get organized.”
