An idea that started on Facebook and went viral overnight has become a nationwide event. Locals in the Homer area have joined the nonpartisan Women's March on Washington and will be showing their support from nearly 4,500 miles away.
KBBI's Casey Marsh spoke with local event organizers Karen Murdock and Emily Munns about the upcoming event.
Editor's note: Emily Munns currently serves on the KBBI Community Advisory Board.
Marsh: Emily could you share with us why you are interested in participating in the march on Homer.
Munns: I’m excited to join hundreds of thousands of other people this Saturday in marching for women’s rights as human rights and civil rights.
Marsh: How about you Karen?
Murdock: I am part of the Grass Roots Movement that started organizing the local Women’s March on Homer.
Marsh: Why do you think it’s important for a community as small as Homer to be participating in this now nationwide event?
Murdock: I think it’s very important for us to be part of the process, because what happens on our level statewide, locally, and nationally affects all of us.
Marsh: Switching over to you Emily, why do you think Homer’s participation in this march is important?
Munns: I think it’s really important for people in Homer to consider the political climate, because something Karen and I have talked about is that not only do we have political changes at the federal level, but Alaska is in a fiscal crisis, and I think that the affects of that are really going to be felt this year. It’s really vital, I think, to discuss now and have an awareness now of what the implication of these changes in our state, and nationally, could be.
Marsh: My next question involves the date of the march. Is there any reason why it specifically is the day after the president-elect’s inauguration?
Murdock: I believe that the twenty-first was chose because it’s the incoming president’s first day of actual work at the White House.
Marsh: What do you hope to come out of this march?
Murdock: Our group has come up with a few goals and they are to raise awareness of women’s rights, to protect the existing rights we have on a local, state, and national level- and so we are all coming together to figure out what the next step is.
Marsh: Emily same question: what do you hope to come out of this march for our community?
Munns: I think I too am most hopeful that…that people can make connections: individuals with agencies and individuals with each other, because there is so much uncertainty for the future right now. For the future of Alaska, we’ve already seen propositions here on the local level in response to statewide budget cuts. And I think that one of the most valuable things that can come out of this event, locally, is people getting to get in touch with each other and hopefully educate each other and themselves on what resources are available now to support each other. A lot of people have just been wondering where do we go from here since, since November.
Marsh: Is there anything else you ladies would like to share to the public? Karen?
Murdock: The last thing I guess I would like to say is people are marching for different reasons, and they’re personal, and I’d like to talk a little bit about what my reasons are, and I’m… and it’s hard for me to say it without my voice getting all shaky because it’s very near and dear to my heart.
But I’m marching for the future of my country. I’m marching for my family and my friends. I’m marching to protect the rights of social justice gains that have been achieved over the last fifty years. I’m marching to move forwards, not backwards.
Marsh: Emily, is there anything you’d like to add?
Munns: I guess I would like to just say that this is an opportunity for anyone who has been offended or shocked or saddened by the rhetoric that we have heard in the last year and overtime and across so many different platforms, against some of the most vulnerable people in our society. This is an opportunity to not do nothing, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited to march this Saturday.
Fifteen other communities throughout Alaska will also be participating in the march, including Bethel, Juneau, Kodiak, and Anchorage.
The march in Homer will take place Saturday, Jan. 21. Participants will meet at Homer Council on the Arts at 11:30 a.m. and the march will begin at noon. For more information check out their Facebook page at Women's March on Homer Alaska
