Keeping the X

From the editor of Gleamings, the monthly newsletter at RantWoman's Meeting:

"The Women’s March in Washington provided an opportunity to affirm the importance of our country’s values and our willingness to continue the struggle so I went and marched. I left the march with a sense of hope that I had not had since the election. "

Madame editor, did you intersect with ANY of the social media streams about why the preferred spelling is WomXn's ?

Should RantWoman just file her fixation with the specific non-gender specificity of this X among the many linguistic twitches in RantWoman's particular mental lint trap OR should RantWoman demand it be considered as her Meeting grapples further with a certain Minute on Gender Inclusiveness?

Moving on, first estimates were that the WomXn's march in Seattle would draw 30,000 people. Then maybe 50,000. Final estimates put the crowd size close to 150,000 and multiple info streams including RantWoman's Twitter feed reported that the march stretched from its starting point in Judkins Park all the way, over 3 miles to Seattle Center and it took over two hours for everyone marching to get to the end of the route.

150,000 people all streaming in to one location puts A LOT of strain on the transportation system. The Light Rail reported a single day ridership record.  Every bus driver RantWoman talked to who worked the day of the march talked about WAY overcrowded buses, passing people by, long waits.

Please excuse RantWoman AGAIN. RantWoman is doing well not her level best but maybe her least disequilibriated best to maintain some measure of equanimity in the face of the ongoing barrage of outrages to common sense and civility wrough during the current regime. RantWoman is TRYING to keep her feet on the ground, take the long view, figure out what is distraction and what must be confronted immediately.

No Forget all that. RantWoman is still striving to cope with The WomXn's March Seattle edition as seen from Planet RantWoman

What summoned the ( ****ing P***y) March this time?

Minutes! That's what!. Minutes for the monthly meeting of Where RantWoman was instead of at the WomXn's march. This month's minutes involve an announcement that the speaker who cancelled because of the WomXn's march in January will be appearing at the March meeting. (This post lingered long in the drafts folder. Hold that in the Light.)

And before that, #InternationalWorkingWomen's day, noted specifically for working on #InternationalWorkingWomensDay.

RantWoman is secretary of a local blindness organization that meets the third Saturday of every month, conflicting with the WomXn's march. RantWoman thinks the decision not to cancel and reschedule was wise: not everyone wanted to go to the march and actual work got done at the meeting. The planned speaker did decide not to brave the colossal transportation disruptions caused by the streaming crowds and others besides RantWoman had travel challenges getting to the meeting.

In particular, RantWoman has two choices about getting to the monthly meeting, one through downtown near the march route, and one that takes Rantwoman in the opposite direction from the crowds streaming to the event. RantWoman decided to choose her routing based on which bus came first. Bad Choice. The routing through downtown involved multiple adaptive reroutes, RantWoman deciding tjust to walk from one stop where no buses were stopping in a completely non obvious direction and then just deciding to stand with Ambassador Thwack at the first bus stop she found and act pitiful.

Somewhere in the bus reroutes it occurred to RantWoman that maybe the speaker would need help connecting with a bus. RantWoman texted and learned that Speaker was gladly not even attempting....

Somehow while making way through the transit maelstrom, RantWoman's mind wandered to a march long ago in NY City. over 1 million people took to the streets in connection with the UN Special Session on Disarmament. RantWoman was basically still a New York city novice. RantWoman remembers DEEP gratitude just to leave everything to do with directions to Blind Roomate and her political activist connections. The day of the WomXn's march, RantWoman though had to swallow grumbles: why can't everyone be Wonder Blind Person in exactly the same way????

RantWoman! Why indeed?????

In Seattle the WomXn's march originated practically in Little Sister's front yard. The park in question is a couple times a year the gathering point for marches. This time the march planning came with 40 portable toilets delivered to the parking lot out Little Sister's front door. One of Little Sister's neighbors could not go to work for two days because her car was blocked in.

There is also an email excess / event coordination thread tangled here.

Look world, RantWoman realizes this excursion darned well needs editing. God and the universe get to cope for now.

In the Light.