Thousands of people turned out for women’s marches and rallies in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire on Saturday as part of a series of protests a day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
In Montpelier, Vt., demonstrators overwhelmed the small city, causing traffic backups on the interstate that prompted the state police to close exits in and around the city for a time and the police chief to say that city roads could not support any more people or vehicles Saturday afternoon. Police, who estimated the crowd was between 15,000 and 20,000, reopened the interstate exits Saturday night.
Democratic former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin told the people in the crowd they are not alone in their fear, despair or grief for what might have been but they are together in their strength and determination. “Over the next four years, we will be heard,” she said. “We will raise our voices not only today, not only here in Montpelier, Vermont, but in every city and town and state in the United States and Washington.”
Independent Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders also spoke at the rally. “Trump is going to learn they are not going to divide us up!” Sanders shouted, according to the Burlington Free Press. “We are going to create … a nation based in love and compassion, not on hate and bigotry!”
More than 3,000 people carrying signs with messages such as “Dissent is patriotic” and “We are better than this” attended a rally on the Statehouse lawn in Concord, N.H., where Democratic U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter and author Jodi Picoult addressed them.
“We in New Hampshire are not in the habit of going in reverse,” Picoult said. “We have the backs of those who are less fortunate — who may be struggling for health care, for environmental rights, for racial equality, for a fair wage, for justice. We are in this together. And we know that change does not come from the top down, but from the bottom up.”
Earlier Saturday, at least 10,000 people turned out for a women’s march in Portland, Maine, while others attended rallies in Augusta and Brunswick.
In Boston, thousands of people converged on the Common on Saturday. Organizers and police estimated the crowd at more than 100,000.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for challenging any Republican efforts to overturn abortion rights, take away health care from millions of Americans and tear apart immigrant families through deportation.
“Donald Trump’s campaign was about attacks on women, attacks on African-Americans, attacks on Latinos, attacks on religious groups, attacks on immigrants,” the Massachusetts Democrat told the crowd. “We come here to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to make clear we are here, we will not be silent, we will not play dead, we will fight for what we believe in.”