Press release from Michelle Price:
On Saturday, Sept. 21, at 5:30 p.m. the We The People March will take place in Asheville beginning at 68 Haywood Street, across from the U.S. Cellular Center. There will be music, invitations to let the peoples’ voices be heard through signs, petitions, and a round-trip march through downtown. With this march, Asheville will join 60 other cities in solidarity with the We the People March taking place in Washington, D.C. on the same day. This peaceful, fully transparent First Amendment assembly will mobilize more than 100,000 participants from across the country.
Local march organizer Michelle Price wants everyone to know the mission of The We the People March. “We the People are marching to be seen and heard. We are marching to remind our elected officials that they work for us. We are marching because the current regime is a threat to our democracy and values. We are marching to demand action. Silence and inaction are complicity.”
“The mission statement is broad because the concerns of everyday citizens is as broad and diverse as America,” stated Amy Siskind, one of the national march organizers.
Price hopes to inspire people throughout western North Carolina who wish to communicate with elected officials at all levels about issues they believe are being ignored or not given the attention they deserve to join the march and to bring their petitions to the Saturday evening march for other people to sign. She encourages elected officials, candidates and representatives from local organizations to participate by showing up and listening to the people they strive to represent. “We the People March exemplifies the kind of participatory government envisioned by this nation’s founders,” said Price.
All marchers are encouraged to bring signs that show support for their cause.
Madison County Indivisible, a local activist group, is helping to promote the Solidarity March in Asheville. Their leader, Terry Hopkins, believes people getting more involved in politics is especially important at this time. She stated, “We must use our First Amendment right of free speech to protest the current rule ‘of, by and for’ the minority in this country, subverting the will of the people. As Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.’ It is not just our right, but our duty, to speak out about what is happening in our government today.”
At both the local and the national level, We the People March organizers are focused on the non-partisan, peaceful nature of this exercise in First Amendment rights. They believe that for the republic to remain strong and reflect the values embedded in the Bill of Rights, people must remain active, involved and in touch with elected officials.
The We the People March will be a day of equity and inclusion that reflects our commitment to peaceful assembly to achieve our mission. For more information about the marches, visit https://www.wethepeoplemarch2019.org/solidarity-marches/.
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