Professor of Art & Design Hagop Najerian and his family decided to travel to Washington D.C. for the Women’s March and expressed that he had no idea of the magnitude of people at the march.
He traveled with his wife and daughter, stating, “My daughter is at Berkeley and when the elections happened she was involved with the protests on campus. She’s a linguistics French major with a minor in women’s studies and she really wanted to go, and my wife wanted to go and I thought we should all go.”
“[We went] mainly for my daughter I mean I would have probably gone to the [Los Angeles] march as well. We knew the history of [the march] and the magnitude and she clearly is very passionate about it,” Najerian said.
He said the weather was better in Washington than in California. “The weather was completely beautiful. It was about 50 degrees and cool… if you dressed for it. I just had like a shirt and an army jacket on. We were more concerned about standing in the rain.”
Najarian and his family first travelled to Baltimore and took a Greyhound to Washington D.C. because everything was booked up. He states, “We got up at 4:30 a.m. and ended up in D.C. at six a.m… no one was there [but] three women came [to us] and said ‘Hi are you here for the march? Here is the path, lets walk you through here’ and they took us to the stage.”
According to womensmarch.com, “On Saturday, over 5 Million of us worldwide and over 1 Million in Washington, D.C., came to march…”
Najarian agrees that the number of people at the venue was excessive. “I kept looking back and because of the pink hats, I could see the heads growing and at one point I did a couple high camera shots and I had no idea until I saw the video of the helicopter view that it was just pouring in with people. There was an exceptionally large crowd.”
He adds, “This is what was beautiful. You met strangers you never knew, some from Portland Oregon, some from Idaho some from Boston… some from New York that just came to be there…
“Their stories were all what really solidified my belief again [that] there are great people out there that know the situation is rough and the only way to fix it is to stick together and challenge things as they come up.” Najerian expressed.
“Everyone was so kind. [A] guy had cracker snacks for people if they were getting hungry, the person to the left of me had a seizure and the amount of courtesy for that was just extraordinary as far as people getting out of the way. The doctor in the crowd, not a medic from the organization, started it and made sure he didn’t move.” Najarian said.
While Najarian was in Washington D.C., a smaller protest happened in Los Angeles.
Fitness trainer Seth Gee said, ”I don’t think it’s just about women. This is the Women’s March but it’s about something bigger than that and embracing everyone in America.
“I love how diverse it is I was really happy to see that and I think it’s a really good representation of Los Angeles. It’s a little unorganized but I didn’t know what I was expecting I think it’s really awesome,“ Gee expressed.
Najarian can agree and say, “It was no longer a womens march.
“It was this equality thing of ‘everyone should not be overlooked’ and be considered as a rightful American.” Najarian expressed.
