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Some thoughts after the March for Science

I arrived at the Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, at about 10:30 AM. The trolley operator asked to read my sign as I disembarked. I did not have a particular clever sign -- it was a portable chalkboard on a stout carrying pole. The message was a simple statement: "Science: a proven remedy, selected by evolution." The bit about evolution was there because I thought it was important to understand our species evolved into scientists, because being a scientist is a survival trait.

There were many other more clever signs -- you can find several of the best at this website: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/04/23/these-were-the-best-signs-from-the-marchforscience/ .

There were women wearing pink knitted caps in the shape of brains on this occasion. A few held signs explaining that they personally were still alive because of medical science advancements.

"Remember polio? Me, neither."

"You know it is serious when the nerds come out."

"At the start of every disaster movie, there is a scientist being ignored."

The Plaza was already filled enough by attendees that movement was severely restricted. I managed to cement myself to a good position to view the podium, basically 50 feet back and to the right. To my right, another 50 feet away, a video screen showed a view of the podium and various video clips.

I think that maybe the organizers grossly underestimated the size of the crowd. The adjacent Market Street was already filling with persons ready to march, even before the speeches began. I still do not know the number that were there, only that it was in the "tens of thousands".

The anchor speaker was Adam Savage, placed last on the agenda before the actual march was to begin. The other speakers were interesting and inspiring, but frankly the presentations ran just a bit too long. By the time Adam Savage stepped up to the podium, everyone was definitely anxious to start moving - standing in place for two hours is surprisingly wearing on the body. But Adam got everyone fired up again, cheering, and ready to go.

So about 12:30 PM, the crowd was told to face right and head for Market Street. About 45 minutes later, I had managed, along the mass of people surrounding me, to actually cross the plaza and reach Market Street.

Along Market, I found that I was roughly in the mid-section of marchers, the body of which pretty stretched the length of the route. It is 1.6 miles from the Plaza to the Civic Center. Normally, I could walk that in about 30 to 40 minutes. Today, starting at 1:15 PM, I did not get to the Civic Center until about 3:00 PM -- say roughly a pace that was one half of normally walking.

The event was combined with the Earth Day festivities, so an environmentally oriented science fair was in progress at the Civic Center. But I was exhausted, needed a restroom more than anything else, and then BART/Caltrain home.

Will the marches make a difference? Certainly the numbers are impressive, more people than I would thought came out. But while marches are indeed movement, the movement can not end with the march. Organizers have asked that the marches be just the start of a week of action. Ongoing, we have be political. The image of STEM people as dis-involved and socially distantly must be placed in the trashcan. We need to promote the notion that when a scientist/technologist/engineer/mathematician steps up to a podium, people should listen.

Good Science is not Alternative Facts.

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