{"id":16356,"date":"2017-01-26T12:11:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T17:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16356"},"modified":"2017-02-01T17:36:21","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T22:36:21","slug":"mothers-and-daughters-march-for-their-sisters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/mothers-and-daughters-march-for-their-sisters\/","title":{"rendered":"Mothers and daughters march for their sisters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over her 12 years, Lillie Clark-Gerein says she has always been passionate about women\u2019s rights \u2013 and the rights of all people.
\nBut, when she got up on Saturday morning and put on her \u201cPower to the Girls\u201d t-shirt, donned her knitted pink \u201cpussyhat\u201d and hopped on the GO Train with her mother, her passion kicked into went into high gear as she joined the thousands of women and men for Toronto\u2019s Women\u2019s March, one of a series of demonstrations all around the world protesting the politics and policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.
\nTheir \u201cpussyhats\u201d, part of a worldwide movement to take back the word while creating a potent symbol for the fight for equality, added to the sea of pink flowing through downtown streets.
\n\u201cThe speakers had some empowering words,\u201d says the Hartman Public School student. \u201c[It showed me] that we should not be afraid to speak out and we can use our voice. Seeing all the different and diverse people there, different age groups and races, different genders \u2013 everyone was so unique and it was really cool.\u201d
\nIn the lead-up to Saturday\u2019s demonstration, Lillie says she didn\u2019t share her plans with any of her friends \u201cbecause I know others have different opinions, but those she told before their departure, however were pretty much on the same page when it comes to President Trump, she says.
\n\u201cMy opinion is he is not a great guy and he really shouldn\u2019t be President \u2013 I don\u2019t know how that much power got into his hands,\u201d says Lillie, noting that people need to remain positive over the next four years. \u201cTry not to think about it too much and just keep marching.\u201d
\nThis is a sentiment Lillie shares with her mother, Corrie Clark.
\nMs. Clark, a mother of three young women, said it was important for her to share the day with Lillie because she feels President Trump\u2019s policies have the power \u201cto set the world back 50 years\u201d when it comes to racism, bigotry, and misogyny.
\n\u201cI fear for the world and the racism and bigotry coming back again when I thought we had progressed to a much more enlightened position,\u201d says Ms. Clark. \u201cI think this generation is now distant from remembering the Second World War, the Vietnam War, and Martin Luther King as a speaker. They\u2019re not exposed to perhaps the segregation and racism in their own country. Being a North American child is a privileged first-world sort of existence and I don\u2019t think they have ever seen those problems. Unfortunately, I think they still exist.
\n\u201cWhat Trump has done is brought to light that those issues are still there and he has given them an excuse to express them. I need [my daughters] to be very aware that the fight isn\u2019t over. They need to be aware of that and they can go forward to stand up and change that.\u201d
\nAs Ms. Clark took in the demonstration and absorbed the words of the speakers, she also observed a group of individuals supporting President Trump standing near police wearing their red \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d baseball caps, made iconic by the Republican candidate on the campaign trail
\nIt was a moment of dialogue and perspective for both sides, says Ms. Clark.
\n\u201cI asked them if they were having a tough day because they were right by the police,\u201d she says. \u201cThey said, \u2018Yes, we are.\u2019 There were a few people who tried to get violent and aggressive with them and they said it has been scary at times walking and being threatened by people. I said it was good they came out because we all have differences of opinions.\u201d
\nBut, she wanted to know more, particularly whether they believed in everything the newly-minted President has been selling. They said they do, she said, but only so far as business. When she pressed them about women\u2019s rights, she said they stressed \u201cpeople need to understand we\u2019re people as well, we just have a difference of opinion, and it is not personal.\u201d
\nWhile Ms. Clark says it is important to separate the political for the personal \u2013 \u201cpolitics is business and business is politics\u2019 \u2013 the policies are personal too.
\nThe participation of local women in Saturday\u2019s Women\u2019s Marches was not limited to Toronto.
\nAmerican-born Aurora resident Jennifer Ettinger was in the United States with her daughter\u2019s cheer team, and they took in a similar march in Indiana.
\nAn author and lifestyle coach, Ms. Ettinger says she is very proud to be an American, she says, and the USA remains \u201chome\u201d to her. But, when she looks at the state of her homeland how, she says she is \u201cfrightened.\u201d
\n\u201cI see a country I don\u2019t understand and it breaks my heart. On the day of the election, my homosexual friends were posting of fear. I had one friend texting in a total panic attack for his safety. So, when I see women and men coming together to have their voices heard, I feel it is a bright light during dark days. I am glad my daughter witnessed thousands of people attending the rally, to see the impact one person can make. I will continue to do what I can, as a woman, as a mother, as an American to help heal my country.
\n\u201cIt was beautiful for the young girls to see, that women can be so powerful and have the strength of rallying together in a time of need. It\u2019s healing. Now the question is: what are the next steps?\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Over her 12 years, Lillie Clark-Gerein says she has always been passionate about women\u2019s rights \u2013 and the rights of all people. But, when she got up on Saturday morning and put on her \u201cPower to the Girls\u201d t-shirt, donned her knitted pink \u201cpussyhat\u201d and hopped on the GO Train with her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/2017-01-26-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4fO","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 18:11:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}