America received a new president last week who brings to Colorado the same controversies that marked his tumultuous election campaign.

The inauguration ceremonies in Washington included thousands of Coloradans who came to support or protest Donald Trump.

Heather Toth, Colorado organizer of the Women’s March on Washington, said she marched in Washington to let Trump know, “Hey, we didn’t vote for you but we matter as much as the people who did vote for you.”

She estimated that at least 3,500 other Coloradans participated in the Women’s March on Washington the day after the inauguration.

“We’re marching to symbolically stand for human rights and afterward to actually stand for human rights,” Toth said.

Her list of women’s rights included reproductive health care, equal pay for equal work and protection from sexual assault and violence.

About an hour before Trump took the oath of president, Father Andre Mahanna walked in a procession of religious leaders attending a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington.

Father Mahanna is pastor of Saint Rafka Maronite Catholic Church in Lakewood, Colo.

He said he participated in the prayer service “to enable healing and to enable newness of life.”

He hoped the Trump administration would address the injustice of terrorism.

“My interest is to save the Christians in the Middle East,” said Father Mahanna, a native of Lebanon.

Trump mentioned terrorism during his inauguration speech when he said, “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.”

Other Coloradans came to the inauguration ceremony to become witnesses to history and to wish Trump well as he embarks on his presidency.

William Mutch, a Colorado Springs political consultant, hosted a luncheon for Trump supporters at a restaurant one block from the White House before the inauguration.

“What I already like is the way he’s operating more like a governor in the way he’s reaching out to companies that are considering moving jobs to other countries,” Mutch said.

Patrick Davis, senior adviser to the Trump campaign from Colorado, said the new president’s policies on education, health care and energy will benefit mainstream Americans.

“His intentions and his policies will impact regular people,” Davis said.

Dede Laugesen, a Colorado Springs political consultant, said Trump brings special hopes for Colorado that include support for businesses, jobs and the state’s coal industry.

“I think the decrease in the oppressive regulatory bureaucracies will make a huge difference in our ability to progress,” she said.

The business climate already appears to be improving, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder report released by Wayne Williams, Colorado’s secretary of state.

New business filings and job growth rose throughout 2016 and are expected to continue, the report says.

However, the optimism was not shared by protesters in Washington estimated by police in the thousands.

Other demonstrations were staged in Denver, including one led by state Rep. Paul Rosenthal, a District 9 Democrat, who protested U.S. Senator Cory Gardner’s alleged support for Trump at the Colorado senator’s Denver office.

One of Rosenthal’s main concerns is that the Trump administration will repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. It extended healthcare to millions of Americans who were uninsured by requiring them to purchase insurance.

“My most grave concern is that we will have million of Americans lose their health insurance and maybe go bankrupt or even death,” Rosenthal said.

He also is displeased with Trump’s policies on undocumented workers, climate change and women’s rights. Fellow Republican Gardner supports many of Trump’s policies.

“Both of whom cannot be counted on to safeguard the climate change protections that President Barack Obama has enacted,” Rosenthal said. “There is very little difference between Cory Gardner and Donald Trump.”

The protests in Colorado were more tame than the sometimes loud and pushy demonstrations in Washington that prompted a police response.

The night before the inauguration, police wearing riot gear used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of about 100 persons that threw rocks at glass storefronts and bricks at police cars along the inaugural parade route to the White House.

At least one bystander was injured in a pushing match with a protester.

During the inauguration, ticket-holders trying to get to Capitol Hill sometimes were forced to work their way through protesters who chanted or carried signs that said, “Not my president,” “Black Lives Matter” and “No Islamophobia.”