EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE, TOMORROW, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, AT 12NOON, at the White House, or at your state capitol, or at your city or town hall.
No one is above the law, not even a king or president. What we see is not making America great again; it’s destroying it. They won’t stop unless we demand it. Make a sign and carry it, or chant, or put your hands in your pockets and listen. It’s your body, there, that counts. We need to be seen. Never been to a protest? Don’t worry; many haven’t. Will it feel awkward? Maybe. Worried the crowd will be small? It will be smaller without you. What if you’re the only one who shows up? Stay anyway. Hold your sign. Wave at the people who honk. Ignore the others. Every movement starts small, with individuals. Streams start as droplets, but they grow and gather until justice flows like a mighty river (and if you recognize where I stole that idea, you should definitely be there).
Americans aren’t used to protesting. They’ve trusted their elected representatives to uphold the Constitution. Politicians no longer get the benefit of the doubt. One party is complicit, and the other is complacent. There must be an opposition.
People in other democracies know what to do in situations like this. We’ve seen it in Greece and France, all our lives. In the last few weeks, we watched South Korean citizens and politicians come out into the streets and save their democracy. Hundreds of thousands of citizens, in the Republic of Georgia, have been out in the streets for the last 80 days! We need the practice. They are already abolishing departments without Congressional approval, giving access to our Social Security numbers and other personal data to people with no security clearance, and coercing elected officials to do their policy bidding with the threat of criminal prosecution. What if they arrest citizens for their opinions? What if they send people to Guantanamo or El Salvador? What if they declare martial law? We must be ready to mobilize, and act together, to save the Constitution. And to do that we need to get used to regularly exercising our right to peaceful assembly. Protesting must become as natural as voting, because if we don’t do the one, we may no longer be able to do the other.
