STRAGGLING AND NETWORKING AT THE WOMEN’S UNITY RALLY

The first three Granny Peace Brigade stragglers to arrive at the south end of Foley Square on Saturday, January 19 for the WOMEN’S UNITY RALLY chose to wait for more stragglers. How can everybody be a straggler? It’s a GPB specialty — join us and you’ll see how it works. We used our waiting time for political discussions and people watching. A group of counter demonstrators passed by, one carrying a sign saying JEWS FOR TRUMP and another with a sign calling us BITCHES. Go figure. That group was followed by a lively and beautiful group from UNITE HERE Local 100, the union for workers in cafeterias, executive dining rooms, restaurants, bars, delis, airports, sports and exhibition halls and performing arts centers in the NYC area. After these folks went by a police officer asked us to move, so we sought a comfortable barricade to lean on.

Barricades are not forever and another officer asked us to move again. Finally we were straggling into the crowd. Because of the waiting, people watching and leaning on barricades we did wind up rather far from the stage. We couldn’t see the speakers or hear them very well, so we used the time for networking with folks nearby.

Meanwhile, Bud and Fran Korotzer (to know them is to love them) had forged to the front where Bud took these wonderful photos.