ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Kathleen Speranza is seen with the painting that she will carry in the Women’s March on Washington.
By DAVID WILSON
The day after President Donald Trump recites the oath of office, many plan to make a statement of their own.
This won’t be Allyson Preston’s first. The Marblehead resident has taken part in marches since the 1970s. And on Saturday, the physician at North Shore Medical Center will join in the Boston Women’s March for America.
“We as a nation, not just women, need to make it very clear that some of the things that (Trump) mentioned during the presidential campaign … are not what we believe,” she said.
So Preston is going to march for groups who were “maligned” during the campaign: women, minorities, and people with disabilities, she said. Her sister will be with her.
But Preston doesn’t place all of the blame on Trump. He was an “instigator” who “hit a nerve,” she said, prompting more division.
“We clearly have a lot of work to do,” she said.
Jo Ann Simons of Swampscott wants to live in a country where everybody has a voice.
Speaking Friday afternoon from the airport, the CEO of Northeast Arc is traveling to the nation’s capital for Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington.
Her reasons for attending the march aren’t political, she said. It’s to “make sure that we illustrate that there’s room at the table for everybody.”
Simons is marching for women, but she’s also marching for people with disabilities.
“Every day is a precious day, and I want to make sure we are moving forward,” she said.
Lynn artist Kathleen Speranza told The Item earlier in the week that she will carry a 5-foot poster of one of her paintings, which reads “America the Beautiful,” at the Washington, D.C. march.
Speranza immediately saw an “interesting blend” of women for the march and Trump supporters when she arrived in Washington, D.C. a little before 4 p.m. Friday, she told The Item in a text message.
“(They were) all flowing together in the Metro like two separate species of fish,” she wrote. “Very weird and a little scary.”
The Boston Women’s March for America begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Boston Common, on the corner of Beacon and Charles streets. All are welcome, according to the event website.
The Women’s March on Washington begins at 10 a.m. Saturday near the U.S. Capitol. An estimated 2.2 million are expected to join in 673 “sister marches” nationwide, their website said.
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David Wilson can be reached at [email protected].