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Facing "worst case scenario" Lansing woman joins March on Washington

l-r, Jane Stephenson, Lee Reimann, Amy Stephenson and Andrew Stephenson

Tashmica Torok of Lansing is will join thousands in the Women's March on Washington on Saturday. She's the executive director of The Firecracker Foundation, an organization dedicated to working with child survivors of sexual trauma and their families. Her motivation is to go on the record as someone who did not vote for Donald Trump and who doesn't think the President-Elect acts "in the best interests of the people of the United States."

"This is the closest I'm ever going to get to him," she explains, adding "as a woman of color working for children who experience sexual trauma, this is probably the worst case scenario."

Amy Stephenson is a marketing coordinator at an East Lansing law firm and Co-director of the non-profit community service Helping Women Period. Stephenson and her son Andrew, 17, and daughter Jane, 14, will also be joining the Women's March on Washington. 

Stephenson sees the march as an opportunity to help her kids better understand issues of the day. "They've been blessed with a lot of opportunities, and my mantra in parenting is 'to whom much has been given, much is expected'. And I can't think of a better way to see that first hand than to hear other people speak about their journey - about the things they've had to sacrifice, and the words we'll hear at this march."

Another Lansing area marcher on Saturday will be Peter Foster Fishman of East Lansing. He's a psychologist and father of two; he says he wants to support the women in his life, including his wife and daughters. He says lots of the women he knows have been offended by Trump and are scared by many of his policies and aggressive behavior. "I think most fundamentally, for me," he says, "it's the protecting of women's rights to control their bodies that I'm horribly frightened about."

Scott Pohl is a general assignment news reporter and produces news features and interviews. He is also an alternate local host on NPR's "Morning Edition."
Brooke Allen served as local producer and host for Morning Edition, from June 2016-March 2018.
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