January 21, 2025. Update: Peoples March On DC. Saturday January 18, 2025

By opendoorcommunitybalt on January 21, 2025

Dear Friends on the Way,

How are you? Trump is president and we must spread courage, light, hope and resistance across our land and in our personal lives. The next four years will be a test, and We Shall Over Come. Look who is leading us!!!

The ODC was pleased to sign on as a coalition partner for the march. I made several personal donations. The largest small one was to help pay for portalets. Given my history with the fight for public toilets and being an old man, the portalets are close to my heart and bladder.

I have been yearning for the Peoples March to happen. I have not been on a march since last November when David and I marched on the Women’s March. Ain’t I a Woman? Well, there is a powerful connection between solidarity and identity.

Six of us from North Baltimore Mennonite Church plus David marched. Some of us arrived by train. Erin and Chris and David and I sat in facing seats. Others arrived on the Quaker Bus. We joined 49,994 to make 50,000 strong. Singing, dancing, yelling, beautiful and outrages placards. As usual Amy Goodman of Democracy Now was there. As an aside, let me urge you to get your news from Democracy Now. No sponsors. Amy is an activist and no stranger to jail. Two other hosts: Juan Gonzalez who came up through the Young Turks in NYC and then became an investigative reporter. Also, Nermeen Shaikh, a writer with a degree in philosophy from Cambridge.

The rally was excellent with many speakers representing a wide array of ethnicities, genders, Black, Brown, Asian and White. I particularly liked Ben Jealous whom I knew when he was president of NAACP. Mr. Jealous was active in the Troy Davis case. Amy Goodman and Ben Jealous were present the night the state of Georgia murdered Troy.

At the conclusion of the speakers’ words and singers’ songs for us,
David and I returned to Union Station for supper and the train trip home. I walked 5 miles! And David, my beloved friend, gave me extraordinary help and attention, for instance, managing my rollator going up and down escalators and stairs.

I hope we are all prepared and preparing for the cost of discipleship has increased. Unity, steadfastness, generosity, kindness, love and justice are the strong commitments which are binding us in solidarity for the Life, the Truth and the Way.

Ed Loring and David Payne

Photo’s By David Payne if not otherwise labeled