GUEST BLOG / By Tessa Balc, Times of San Diego, reporter--Residents of La Jolla’s Casa de Mañana Retirement Community gathered outside their home, across from the Children’s Pool, on Saturday morning to protest actions taken by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The gathering and march, for those who were able, was organized by 87-year-old resident Judy Sowder. “Something had to be done,” Sowder said. “We had a march like this for Roe v. Wade and I thought it was time for another one. I just put an envelope in everybody’s mailboxes asking them to come.”
A group just shy of 40 people gathered with signs, some of them resting across their walkers, which shared a range of slogans, including “Stop Destroying Our Democracy” and “Congress Do Your Job.”
One lifelong activist noted her decades of participation in protests — and at 105, Alice Yee has been doing it for a long time. Yee spoke to the crowd before they set off marching, reminding them that marches like theirs are happening across the country. “People who are old like me, need to be out here. We know what it’s like without a democracy,” Yee said. “What we need to do as young people and old people, if we are not vigilant, we lose the very thing that we’ve been fighting for. I’ve been fighting for women’s rights for 50 years (and) we’re doing it all over again, we’re losing it all, we shouldn’t have to do that, but we are.”
TJ Glauthier, a resident in the community for three years and staffer in former President Bill Clinton’s administration, held a sign that read, “Restore the Money,” along with the Ukrainian flag. For him, the need for protest is dire at this moment. It feels like democracy is at stake, he said. “We need our country back. We need the money to get out there, get unfrozen, go to FEMA, hospitals, farmers and others. We need our people back in their jobs. There’s people that have been laid off that need to get back to work,” Glauthier said.
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