It’s a bit embarrassing to say, but I attended my first political march just a couple of weeks back — March for Science Denver. Brought along the girls and their good pal Laine. They were surprised that someone as open/occasionally strident about politics hadn’t put feet to concrete for political purposes before. I said, no, you’ve got me by 35 years on this one.
Part of the reason I hadn’t attended a march is that I’d attended marches, but as a newspaper reporter covering them. As a reporter, your strident opinions/biases are kept quiet, generally by policy (political contributions were, for example, forbidden by Scripps’ scripture, the then-owner of the Daily Camera).
Anyway, we hand-made signs and last-minute Saran-wrapped them, not having interpreted the weather forecast as accurately as might have, for example, Mike Nelson, who gave a great kickoff speech.
I’ve not found crowed estimates, but I’d say 20,000, minimum. Many people. And many great signs. A good toe-dipping in fighting-the-good-fight grassroots protest. I took a lot of photos; a selection below.
The signs at a march on science are bound to be good (and geeky). We weren’t disappointed.
Folks gathered beforehand at the Civic Center Park amphitheater.
Junior scientists were also represented.
This was, obviously, as much protest against our administration’s anti-science bent as a celebration of empirical methods.
This one I had to read twice.
German was represented, even. (“Trump is dangerous to our planet”)
This is far more constructive than, for example, “I’m with stupid.”
Down 17th Street
The home team’s signs were constructed of cardboard with paper glued on, affixed to 1/2 inch PVC pipe that, before I’d sawed shorter, had served as misconceived structural elements of a hastily erected backyard sun shade some years back. I glue-gunned them to the cardboard with enough epoxy to hold together a Boeing 787. Nonrecyclable plastic wrap protected from nonexistent precip.
Another good sign.
My contribution to the visual clutter
The Groundhog Day meme made an appearance. (“Only in America do we accept weather predictions from a rodent but deny climate change evidence from scientists.”)
After a quick online search, it appears that this gentleman’s sign refers to the third derivative of the position function, which is “jerk.”
Beaker makes his beeping and meeping opinions known.
More paid protesters (in Smashburgers, after the event) before the Colorado statehouse.
