Women’s March on Washington Cedar City rallies for voter registration in Las Vegas
A group of men and women from the Cedar City area plan to travel to Las Vegas for Women’s March: Power to the Polls. Organizers intend to launch a national voter registration tour one year after the Women’s March on Washington last January. The rally is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 21 at Sam Boyd Stadium.
The local group organizing participation in the Las Vegas event is Women’s March on Washington Cedar City, formed after last year’s Women’s March on Washington. The group has approximately 250 members, who say they “stand for inclusion, diversity, arts, science, public education, environment, democracy, women’s rights, and human rights.”
“I don’t value the hateful rhetoric I have been hearing this last year, because i think it incites people to be more hateful and be cruel to people” said Tina Dickinson of Cedar City when asked why she intends to travel to Las Vegas for the event. “I don’t like the conflict-oriented discourse or the name calling. I find it really discouraging.”
National organizers say the next stage of the movement launched Jan. 21 of last year will channel the energy and activism of the Women’s March of 2017 into tangible strategies for 2018. Their theme is “Power to the Polls.” They want to register voters in swing states across the nation for November’s midterm elections. Organizers have said their goal is to enroll 1,000 voters at the Las Vegas event and a million voters nationwide before the elections.
More than 250 events and rallies around the world are planned with the central event being the rally in Las Vegas. In addition to registering new voters, organizers intend the rally in Las Vegas to launch a drive to advocate for policies and candidates that reflect the movement’s values and collaborate to elect more women and progressive candidates to office.
Jean Bjerke of Cedar City plans to attend with the Cedar City group.
“My parents raised me to respect others and treat them with dignity, regardless of their race, religion, or nationality,” she said. “I am sad for our country that in the last year there has been a tremendous increase in hate-talk and open intolerance of immigrants and dark-skinned people, disrespect of women, minorities, gays, and the disabled.” She said it was distressing to her and that “this is not America.” She added that she supports an effort to elect people, including women, to national, state, and local offices who display values of basic decency, tolerance, and respect for others.
“I have a son who’s disabled and a paraplegic,” said Dickinson. “When you’re mocking people who are disabled, that’s encouraging others to ridicule and demean disabled people. That’s increased in the last year. People think it’s okay to be openly contemptuous and inconsiderate of disabled people.”
Articles related to “Women’s March on Washington Cedar City rallies for voter registration in Las Vegas”
From St. George to Salt Lake City and beyond, women’s marches matter
Feminist schmeminist: feminism and eating meat are incompatible
