No Racism, No KKK! Donald Trump Go Away
Dec. 11th, 2016 08:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseI'm starting to become a protest connoisseur. Yesterday, I attended the Anti-War Committee's march for Human Rights.
Hopefully this photo show up complete with credit (David E Romm). Apparently, WCCO did a short segment about us (it needs flash. I could NOT get it to work on my Apple products, but Shawn was able to watch it on her Kindle.) The TV segment makes us look better than I think we were. It was not a large crowd, in my estimation. As I've said before, I'm fairly bad at guesstimating groups of people, but I wouldn't have thought we had more than 50, but maybe 100?
Also the Anti-War Committee folks are a bit more radical than the previous group. You can tell by the list of sponsors, which include: Natives Lives Matter, Minnesota Neighbors for Justice,MN Peace Action Coalition, UMN Students for a Democratic Society, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Women's Prison Book Project, Young Muslim Collective,Black Lives Matter Saint Paul, Saint Paul for Justice, Blue Lies Matter, and Black Lives Matter St. Paul. They were also slightly less organized.
It was REALLY cold out yesterday afternoon--probably 7 F / -13.8 C. I got there only about fifteen minutes to and by the time we actually hit the streets, my toes were throbbing from the cold. The problem was that the Anti-War people, like the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee, had speakers planned ostensibly to fire us up... but theirs SUCKED. The first one was so depressing that I think we lost some people. I mean, yes, America has been sh*tty on human rights, particularly international human rights, for a long time. But, no one there, except a few crusty radicals, really wanted to hear a speaker dump on Obama and talk about how they'd planned this march initially thinking we'd be protesting Hillary. This is the apocalypse, people. Let's look forward, not back. The police were also blocking traffic already by the time they started with their speakers and a lot of us were anxious to get going. I found myself muttering unhappily when they tried to get us jazzed to chant because no one could hear us besides ourselves with the roads blocked.
But, when we finally got going, it felt good. I really do like the feeling of being in a crowd, no matter the size, and shouting. Does it make any kind of impact? Does it do any good? I think we have yet to see. If protests get coverage like this one did, albeit brief, it still raises awareness, I think. I don't know.
The other thing that was different from this group than the previous one is that the parade route was a straight line. The MIRAC people had us march back up Lake Street, essentially in a circle, so we were spared a long trek back up Lake Street alone. I mean, it wasn't a huge deal, but we marched 30 blocks down to a church (for more speakers and a warm-up), but I bailed on that, so I ended up trudging the 30 blocks back to retrieve my car.
I guess this is the price for democracy, right? (Sore feet and cold toes).
Hopefully this photo show up complete with credit (David E Romm). Apparently, WCCO did a short segment about us (it needs flash. I could NOT get it to work on my Apple products, but Shawn was able to watch it on her Kindle.) The TV segment makes us look better than I think we were. It was not a large crowd, in my estimation. As I've said before, I'm fairly bad at guesstimating groups of people, but I wouldn't have thought we had more than 50, but maybe 100?
Also the Anti-War Committee folks are a bit more radical than the previous group. You can tell by the list of sponsors, which include: Natives Lives Matter, Minnesota Neighbors for Justice,MN Peace Action Coalition, UMN Students for a Democratic Society, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Women's Prison Book Project, Young Muslim Collective,Black Lives Matter Saint Paul, Saint Paul for Justice, Blue Lies Matter, and Black Lives Matter St. Paul. They were also slightly less organized.
It was REALLY cold out yesterday afternoon--probably 7 F / -13.8 C. I got there only about fifteen minutes to and by the time we actually hit the streets, my toes were throbbing from the cold. The problem was that the Anti-War people, like the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee, had speakers planned ostensibly to fire us up... but theirs SUCKED. The first one was so depressing that I think we lost some people. I mean, yes, America has been sh*tty on human rights, particularly international human rights, for a long time. But, no one there, except a few crusty radicals, really wanted to hear a speaker dump on Obama and talk about how they'd planned this march initially thinking we'd be protesting Hillary. This is the apocalypse, people. Let's look forward, not back. The police were also blocking traffic already by the time they started with their speakers and a lot of us were anxious to get going. I found myself muttering unhappily when they tried to get us jazzed to chant because no one could hear us besides ourselves with the roads blocked.
But, when we finally got going, it felt good. I really do like the feeling of being in a crowd, no matter the size, and shouting. Does it make any kind of impact? Does it do any good? I think we have yet to see. If protests get coverage like this one did, albeit brief, it still raises awareness, I think. I don't know.
The other thing that was different from this group than the previous one is that the parade route was a straight line. The MIRAC people had us march back up Lake Street, essentially in a circle, so we were spared a long trek back up Lake Street alone. I mean, it wasn't a huge deal, but we marched 30 blocks down to a church (for more speakers and a warm-up), but I bailed on that, so I ended up trudging the 30 blocks back to retrieve my car.
I guess this is the price for democracy, right? (Sore feet and cold toes).