Women’s March Encourages Voting

Photo by Catherine Cluett Pactol

About 150 residents took to Kaunakakai’s main street last Saturday to join in the international Women’s March movement, marking one year since the march first took place around the world in 2017 following President Trump’s inauguration. Gathering at the library and marching to the ball park, participants held signs supporting causes like equality, environmental protection, women’s rights and making references to the recent false missile alert.

“Our mission was to get the young women aware of our movement and to get them to the polls, and not just once a year but all the local voting,” said one of the Molokai organizers, Christi Feeter. “That’s probably the most important thing, power is in voting…. I think once they’re more comfortable with advocating and participating, we’re going to see more and more young women getting to the polls, voting, running for office, empowering themselves for education, for domestic violence, and just saying, ‘I’m important.'”

Feeter held a sign saying, “Voting equals power. To all the young girls of Molokai, never doubt you are valuable, powerful and deserving of every chance in the world.”

Speaker Helen Kekalia encouraged women to support each other, take on more leadership roles and foster stronger relationships between men and women in the workplace. Rep. Lynn DeCoite talked about the importance of unity as well as voting.

Photo by Catherine Cluett Pactol

Though the message of this year’s Molokai march focused on encouraging young women to take to the polls, Feeter said she was also happy to see more men join the march, with about the same overall attendance as last year.