Marches set for Saturday in Moscow

Marching will be the norm in Moscow on Saturday as residents participate in the fourth annual Women’s March on the Palouse and, scheduled for the same time, the Moscow March for Life.

The Women’s March is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Moscow City Hall parking lot. Those interested are welcome to bring signs and march to the East City Park performance stage for a short program of speakers and a music performance.

“It’s a women’s march because it’s a chance for women to really come together and find solidarity, but it’s not just for the women,” said Sandra Kelly, an organizer of the event and a Moscow city councilor. “It’s for everybody who believes that everybody has the right to vote and participate in this great democracy that we have.”

Kelly said she wants marchers to focus on whatever issue they want.

“The signs are always different, you know, and I love that,” Kelly said. “That’s one of my favorite things about the march.”

Kelly said Lysa Salsbury, director of the UI Women’s Center, and Rev. Elizabeth Stevens from the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse were instrumental in starting the Women’s March on the Palouse in 2017.

“They really created something special,” Kelly said.

Kelly and Dulce Kersting-Lark, another organizer, said the program at East City Park will be short due to the weather. Kersting-Lark said a couple Moscow High School students will speak and a local musical group will perform.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment which granted women the right to vote. Kersting-Lark said she wants to encourage people to honor the work of the suffragists by exercising their right to vote and being educated.

“My general philosophy is we’re all in this together,” Kersting-Lark said. “And so I think it’s an important opportunity to be reminded of the solidarity that we have in our region.”

She said one of the reasons she wanted to be involved in the Women’s March on the Palouse is the impact the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C., which Kersting-Lark attended, had on her.

“That was like a very transformative experience for me,” she said. “It was very empowering to see that sort of democracy in action … Getting to be at the march in D.C. was really kind of a pivotal movement in my consciousness of being involved.”

The Moscow March for Life, hosted by Moscow Right to Life, starts at 1 p.m. at the Logos School fieldhouse parking lot on Baker Street and will end at Friendship Square in downtown Moscow.

Marchers will cover about a mile and are encouraged to bring pro-life signs, according to the event’s Facebook post, which describes the event as “a peaceful march to affirm the sanctity of human life from conception.”

Once at Friendship Square, the group will gather for a brief rally and prayer.

Also Saturday, the Latah County Human Rights Task Force, with assistance from the Moscow Human Rights Commission and the University of Idaho Office of Multicultural Affairs, will sponsor the annual Martin Luther King Jr. - Human Rights Community Breakfast in the multipurpose room at Moscow Middle School.

Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and youth, including university students. Tickets are available at BookPeople of Moscow, Paradise Ridge CD’s and through the UI Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.