The Reno march

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

On the morning of Jan. 21, we roused the kids as early as we could, got ’em bundled up, and headed down to the federal buiding to join the Reno Women’s March on Washington. We got there at 9:15 a.m. for an event that started at 9, which is about par for the course for my squad—girlfriend Margot, plus Viktoria, 9, Josephine, 10, and Clifford, also 10.

We joined the march already in progress. It was one of the biggest crowds I’ve ever seen in Reno, especially for a political demonstration. It was difficult to gauge the numbers. The Reno Police Department’s estimate of 10,000 seems a bit high to me, but who knows—it’s tough to count the beans when you’re in the jar.

The kids complained the whole time. Viktoria was hungry, cold and tired. Clifford said it “wasn’t fun.” And Josephine grumbled aloud that “this isn’t going to make any difference.”

A woman marching near us overheard this and said to her, “Thank you for marching. It means a lot that you’re here.”

And it did. It was a heartwarming display of community. There were so many people—and not just activists and artists, but other families, longtime residents, newbies, retirees, and university folk.

I became more excited to attend the march when I decided to go as a parent, to provide the kids with a memory of peaceful but powerful protest. They might have complained, but their brains were clicking, and the memories were forming.

With the kids in tow, we weren’t able to get close enough to the jam-packed plaza to hear the speakers. Which is too bad. But we got them close enough to engage with the ideas. Two of those kids are young women. Their mom is a woman. Many of their heroes are women. And women matter.

Our favorite sign was one seen repeatedly at Reno’s march and at thousands of other marches across the country and across the world: Princess Leia, looking determined, and the caption “a woman’s place is in the resistance.”