Erik Larsen

@Erik_Larsen

ASBURY PARK - Janet Whritner cried as she crossed over Wesley Lake into downtown Asbury Park to attend the local Women’s March, one of hundreds taking place across the country Saturday.

A crowd that city police estimated at 6,000 had formed on Lake Avenue near Emory Street to register dissent against the new administration of President Donald J. Trump.

“Seeing this sight, I cried as I walked over the bridge from Ocean Grove,” Whritner said. “It was such a moving experience. It is the culmination of all the anxiety that I’ve been feeling.”

Distraught over the election of Trump and his inauguration on Friday, Whritner – who described herself as “a young senior citizen,” said she stood with her fellow citizens in the name of equality and justice for all.

A sea of original, colorful, creative and humorous protest signs – many far too bawdy to quote here – lampooned the 45th president of the United States and his past comments about women.

Bill Cicchino, 54, of Sea Girt marched for his two grown daughters beneath a pink knit cap while carrying a matching pink sign that read: “A Misogynist is not fit to be POTUS” (president of the United States).

“One just graduated from college, she is 23, and the other is 19, in college,” Cicchino said of his children.

For a year, during the presidential campaign, Cicchino assured his wife and daughters that Trump would never get elected president, because the former reality television star and real estate magnate who had never held public office stumbled from one public gaffe to another, one cruel insult to another and one lie to another.

Late on Nov. 8, Cicchino was horrified to discover that he was wrong.

“I'm still in shock,” Cicchino recalled of his reaction on election night. “I still think I’m going to wake up and it’s going to be a bad dream. After the 'Access Hollywood' tape and making fun of the disabled reporter, no one should have survived that.”

When he read Saturday that the Trump administration’s Department of Justice had asked a federal district court in Texas to delay a hearing scheduled for Tuesday on whether the state’s voter ID law was enacted with a discriminatory purpose, he concluded that his fears about Trump were not overstated.

“The first thing he does as president and it was a horrible, horrendous act,” Cicchino said. “We’re going to be in a very bad place for the next four years.”

Dr. Christine Tintorer, a psychiatrist with a practice in Holmdel, marched for her patients. Specifically, she worries about whether a repeal of Obamacare will hinder their ability to seek treatment.

“I have already seen people benefit from the Affordable Care Act, because they can afford medication that enables them to work and go to school,” Tintorer said. “If we want people to be able to go to work, they need to be able to function, they need to be psychiatrically stable. So that’s huge.”

She also marched for herself and for the rights of all women, she said.

“We need to be able to make our own choices involving our own health care,” Tintorer said. “We need to be able to get screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer. So having restricted access to public health – things like Planned Parenthood restrictions – it causes diseases when you make restrictions to our health care.”

Lisa Terry, 53, Allendale marched for so many reasons she could not fit them all on one protest sign. So she held up a multi-colored sign that indeed read, “Too Many Issues For 1 Sign.”

“I can’t even articulate all the things I’m angry about,” Terry said. “I feel less secure today than I did on Friday morning. We have people running the country who don’t know what they’re doing and have some ideas that are not at all consistent with who we are as a country. We are the majority and this is how we feel and why we’re taking to the streets.”

The parade route started on Lake Avenue at Emory Street and moved east to the Boardwalk on where marchers continued north to Bradley Park, in front of the Paramount Theatre, where a number of passionate speakers addressed the crowd from a stage.

The march in Asbury Park was one of several “sister marches” throughout New Jersey on Saturday, including in Trenton, Westfield, Pompton Plains and Wyckoff. About 600 such “sister marches” took place around the world.

More than 100 buses had left New Jersey early in the morning for the main Women's March on Washington where a crowd of nearly 500,000 showed up.

Raquel Lawrence, 28, of Wall made the trip to Washington with friends on Saturday.

“It felt like a moment in history or as we were calling it, a moment in ‘herstory,’ something very special,” Lawrence said. “I’m definitely reassured in the fact that there is still a strong voice for the things I believe in.”

Lawrence said she came away with a feeling that no matter what Trump does, “we represent America and we are a unified voice – we will respect one another and protect one another. We will stand up and call things out when they don’t feel right.”

In Chicago, USA TODAY reported that tens of thousands had gathered for a rally that grew so large that organizers had to halt the planned short march through the city's downtown.

In all, an estimated 2 million people around the world protested the first full day of Trump's presidency on Saturday, according to USA TODAY.

Erik Larsen: 732-682-9359 or elarsen@gannettnj.com

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