Buckvold attends Women’s March at Capitol

by Cori Hilsgen

news@thenewsleaders.com

St. Joseph resident Anne Buckvold and her daughter, Harriet, were among the many who attended the Women’s March held Jan. 21 at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul.

An estimated 90,000 to 100,000 men and women marched in St. Paul, as well as at least two million people around the world, to show support for women’s rights, education, health care and more the day after President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

Buckvold organized a small group of people who took the Northstar train from Big Lake and then the Light Rail to the capital for the rally. She said she had first heard about the march in December.

Buckvold said she prefers to use public transportation as much as possible. She invited others to join her taking the Northstar train and Light Rail, thinking there might be people who would not otherwise travel to the capital because of the expense, driving and navigating traffic, and more.

She said she had learned through her experiences of organizing the campaign to extend the Northstar that many people simply don’t know how to use public transportation such as the Northstar and they appreciate someone guiding them through the process.

She said half of the group had never taken the Northstar train before.

“I think the march meant different things for different people,” Buckvold said. “Overall, I think it was a demonstration of our solidarity as people. For me, it was about my strength as a woman, my resourcefulness and that this is something that isn’t always recognized in the public arena the way it should be.”

She said the march was peaceful even though there were people everywhere.

“I grew up in the (Twin) Cities and saw a lot of friends, many with their kids (and) strollers,” Buckvold said. “It felt in many ways like we were at a big public park in the middle of winter. Everywhere you looked there were people. You could see people clear up John Ireland Boulevard to the Cathedral. It was incredible. I knew it was going to be big. I didn’t think it would be historic, but it was. Everyone seemed especially glad to see the kids. I brought my daughter and she received a lot of smiles.”

Buckvold wasn’t surprised at the number of people who attended the march.

“Our president insulted so many different groups of people throughout his campaign; it was the easiest thing just to show up as people to say we deserve respect, we deserve our dignity,” she said.

Buckvold said there was a wide diversity of opinion at the march, and one of the struggles after the march that people are starting to identify is how can they organize all of those who attended the event into a political movement that can actually get something meaningful done. It’s difficult to get everyone to agree on one thing, or a set of things.

In Buckvold’s experiences, developing the political consensus needed to create substantive change takes time – a lot of time and an extreme amount of patience, no matter where people find themselves.

She said people should celebrate the march as people demonstrating they are at the very least ready to start standing together publicly to acknowledge their right to have dignity.

Buckvold, a 40-year-old mother of four young children, now questions what is next. She became involved in the pro-life movement in her early teens, but she said that issue caused so much division in her family that she began seriously questioning how that issue alone had become so important.

“No issue should become so important it divides a family,” she said.

Buckvold, a Democrat who grew up in Minneapolis, ran in the past election to represent District 13A but was defeated by incumbent Jeff Howe, a Republican from Cold Spring.

She said she chose to run after having a revealing and disappointing conversation with a representative. After that conversation, she felt she could not hold herself back from running in the election.

“I have a strong work ethic and to see the work up close, and how it wasn’t getting done, really got under my skin,” Buckvold said. “I lost the race but overall ran a strong campaign and had a set of experiences that changed me. The sacrifices I and my family made were significant, but far more important is what I gained.”

She said she feels she gained a deeper understanding of what Minnesotans are struggling with and how those struggles show up in the public arena.

From her experience, Buckvold said she feels the majority of people are deeply stirred up and anxious on either side of the political line that is often drawn. Very few people are clear and know who or what to trust.

“Our ability to succeed as a larger community that is loving and kind across all this division depends on our ability to gain greater clarity about what is happening and to act from this clarity,” she said. “I think Minnesota is going through an identity crisis. I will likely run again, but until then I want to find more ways to get Minnesotans clear and organized in their understanding of what is happening. I believe I have something unique to offer.”

Buckvold took an unpaid leave from her job at ISAIAH, a non-profit in St. Paul, to run for the state Legislature because it would have been a conflict of interest for her not to do so. As a result, her family lost income and health-care benefits.

“My plan was to return to work after I ran, but then that didn’t work out,” she said. “In the time since I decided to run, we’ve had three significant medical emergencies.”

Buckvold said she has been unemployed since the election but is confident that will change.

According to news reports, estimates of attendance at marches around the world included about 500,000 people in Washington, D.C., 250,000 in Chicago, 100,000 in Los Angeles, 60,000 in Atlanta, 80,000-100,000 in London and more.