WAAM, Are We There Yet?

Well, folks, we depart in less than two weeks. Are the organizers stressed? Of course, but surprisingly not as stressed as the last go-round. MJ, WAAM co-founder and head of the street medic team among a myriad of other responsibilities, somehow even won a relaxation contest the other day. 😅 This is in large part because of the WAAM community. Past-marchers, current-marchers and organizers from DC to Philly have been working together to make April’s march just as safe and even more organized than last fall’s.  

Currently WAAM has received housing support for 100 people in Swarthmore, Claymont, Wilmington, Elkton, Havre de Grace, Belcamp, Joppatowne, Baltimore, Elkridge, Laurel, University Park, and two nights in Washington, DC. Our marchers will again be staying in generous churches, community centers, basketball gyms, on farms, and in the homes of others who understand our shared responsibility to march for community and against injustice. We still have a handful of marchers to place in Newark and thus far have been striking out in White Marsh (backup plan is hotel rooms for the night – all donations to WAAM are tax-deductible).

Our food team, co-captained by nonprofit foodie Amber and retired coastguard Jim, has a detailed menu ready to go that’s nutritious, cost-effective and looking delicious. From enough breakfast coffee for an army to choose-your-own sandwiches for lunch, a trail mix bar decided through a very democratic marcher poll (I’m still voting for gummy bears!), and pasta nights to grill nights, well, I hope our marchers weren’t expecting to lose weight during the voyage. That’s not to mention the potlucks and donated catering planned for all along the route. We had a hiccup recently when the first night’s meal donation fell through, but in true WAAM spirit, three local Indivisible chapters alongside the Philly Quaker community are now making us dinner. I’ve been told that there’s going to be so much food we’ll have enough for lunch in Chester on day two.

As most of you probably know, we aren’t backpacking those 160 miles. We’ve got our beloved returning U-Haul driver, Teddy, who’s now making his third trip accompanying a march from Philly to DC (he’s an OG from Democracy Spring). As many of you probably guess, the back of September’s U-Haul was kind of a mess. Anticipating double the participants, a team of marchers, dubbed the TrukRax team, have designed and constructed sturdy shelves out of a little lumber and a whole lot of bamboo that they harvested from behind the Little League field. It was a feat of team work, compromise and dedication.

The TrukRax Crew at work

How do you literally move 100 people across 160 miles safely? What roads do you use? How do you deal with crosswalks? Or stoplights without crosswalks? Roads with shoulders? Tiny sidewalks? Right turn lanes? And then there’s those dreaded interstate cloverleaves (I’m looking at you, I-95). Our Texas team – army veteran Donna and mechanical engineer Jimmy – created a workbook of road conditions and march maneuvering. That singular workbook has now been shared with two groups organizing long marches in other parts of the country. With April’s march, we plan to finetune the instructions and share the workbook even more widely.

Talking about safety, in Philly on Saturday, they estimate that almost 40,000 people attended No Kings. With such a large crowd, a strong safety squad was critical. Half of the Philly safety leads, from marshals to street medics, were also members of our WAAM team.

I’ve got two more stories to round out this newsletter; one march-related and one more personal (but still march-related, don’t worry).

When you’re organizing a march like this, 100 people over 160 miles, you need bathroom breaks planned well in advance. Lunch breaks even more so. On day five of the march, our pilgrims travel almost ten miles on route 40 aka Pulaski Highway. It is a boring trek, straight with just enough hills to be onerous and almost nowhere to stop. When I say I’ve been pulling out my hair over this, I am not exaggerating (well, the White Marsh housing situation is also a contributing factor – remember those tax-deductible donations). In a somewhat ridiculous gamble, we contacted the port-a-potty distributor along the route and hoped with a little humor they might let our marchers stop for lunch and a bathroom break. They answered that they wanted to accommodate us, but their property was too busy for 100 exhausted walkers to stop. Did we want to break at their private land a few miles down (next to the alpaca farm) and they’d leave some port-a-potties for the day? As I’ve said before and will say again, it is not luck that gets our marchers safely from Philly to DC (with relatively-happy bladders). It is a little bit of ingenuity and a whole lot of community. People who believe in the America we’re marching for, an America that supports everyone who calls this country home, that prioritizes the well-being and happiness of all our children, we are everywhere. 

From cold-calling churches to checking for bathrooms in every Wawa between Philly to DC, WAAM organizers are nothing if not persistent. Funded solely through individual donations, WAAM doesn’t have a promotion budget which makes recruiting marchers somewhat difficult. To this end, I’ve personally joined over 100 online activist groups from all over the country. This is how I met Janet, an 82-year-old retired nurse in small-town Minnesota. She organizes locally, writes postcards and, once a week, stands holding a sign on a street corner with a handful of other local activists. After a long No Kings Day, I returned home to a package on my doorstep. Inside was a used book, The Women’s March by Jennifer Chiaverini. Inside that book was a note on pink paper in the neat cursive I associate with a Catholic education. “My dear friend,” she starts. “I found this in the ‘book sale room’ while waiting for a DSA (democratic socialists) meeting. I hope it inspires you like it did me. I cried several times when reading it. I am 82. I fought to get Roe v Wade in the first place! So…I cheer you on!! Love, Janet.”

For me at least, the driving force of WAAM is our conviction that community is everywhere. We are not alone in our pain, in our resistance or in our hope.

Signing off!

Maggie