"Where do I even start?"
Scrawled in thick black marker on white poster board, those words really caught my eye amid thousands of signs protesters carried through the Women's March in Seattle.
"Too many issues. Not enough sign."
They expected 50,000 of us to turn out.
Try 130,000.
"This march is just a warm-up."
The crowd at Judkins Park, where the march started, was so much bigger than expected, it took almost two hours for five tributaries of people to make their way through the side streets flowing to the main march route.
None of us expected to be standing shoulder to shoulder for so long. We rolled with it, eagerly anticipating that moment when the standstill demonstration would start moving.
From time to time, a chant would roll through the crowd.
My favorite: "This is what democracy looks like."
Sylvia wore her Wonder Woman hat, and I wore one with rainbow stripes. We didn't make any of our own signs. I was so caught up in my "Where do I start?" frame of mind, I didn't quite realize how fitting a protest slogan that would be for this day.
For much of the day, Sylvia and I took turns carrying a sign that read "Girl Power" on one side and "Stand Up. Resist Hate" on the other.
Word nerd that I am, I took photos of signs that spoke to me and jotted down others that were too far away or passed me by so quickly that I couldn't quite get a shot.
Here's a gallery of photos ...
Some other shareworthy sentiments:
"Hate doesn't make America great."
"The power of the people is stronger than the people in power."
"I promise to vote in the midterms."
"No one is free when others are oppressed."
"Pride over prejudice."
"Left or right, we all see wrong."
The next four years and beyond will require us to step up in ways we never imagined we'd have to.
"I can't believe I have to protest this shit."
It might feel like an injustice, and it is. As we all summon the grit it will take to get through these next four years and beyond, let's remember these words of Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."