If you read the news the week after the more than 1,300 Hands Off protests across U.S. cities and towns on April 5, you’d think not much happened that day.
Fox News gave the story a bit of a yawn, sending a reporter only to the Washington, D.C., event, but that was no surprise. Even traditional news sites such as AP, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post gave the story minimal coverage, listing crowd sizes for only a few major cities.
Closer to home, Rep. Mike Thompson told Santa Rosa Junior College journalism students on April 15 that he spoke before impressive numbers of people at Sonoma and Napa county protests that day. More than 1,000 people turned out in the square at Sonoma, about 2,000 in Napa, 200 at the Yountville Veterans Home and 5,000 at Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa.
After less than three months in office, Trump has set chaos into motion with massive cuts to health, education and social services, people being rounded up by ICE agents and imprisoned without due process, and threats to universities and the legal profession.
With that chaos swirling, even the shy have to try to be mighty. We have to show up with so many numbers and so much volume and intensity that we cannot be ignored.
“We can be most effective in the court of public opinion,” Thompson said, “and people need to get revved up and excited about this stuff.”
The actions of protesters have shifted the tide of history before, the congressman and Vietnam War veteran said. “The truth of the matter is, it was John Lewis, the Freedom Riders, it was the civil disobedience and the organic rallies in the streets that brought us the Voting Rights Act and the civil rights advancements that we made,” he said. “And then on a more personal note, it was the same sort of outcry from the public that got my ass home from Vietnam.”
Sen. Cory Booker’s 25-hour speech on the Senate floor from March 31 to April 1 reminded us all of the power that ordinary people have if only we use it. “You think we got civil rights because he [Strom Thurmond] came to the floor one day and said, ‘I’ve seen the light?’ No, we got civil rights because people marched for it, sweat for it and John Lewis bled for it,” Booker said.
There is no substitute for protest, for finding a spot to stand on city streets, to gather with a few others, then grow to two and three deep on the sidewalk, leaving little room for others to move through the crowd.
The protest signs in Santa Rosa on April 5 ran the gamut from dead serious — “For sale: America” — to humorous — “I’ve seen better cabinets at Ikea.”
Traffic went by very slowly on Santa Rosa’s Third Street, and the growing crowd roared when drivers honked their horns in support.
Once people relaxed, the atmosphere turned festive — people out in good weather. I felt relief at the lack of violence, but did not welcome the Santa Rosa Police SUVs blocking access to Third Street between B and D streets for safety reasons.
Were officers concerned for us or about us?
Protestors cheered for the old guy in a four-wheeled scooter going by in the bike lane. They cheered for the young Latino guy driving one-handed toward Hwy. 101, mouth open, phone in hand and recording the scene. They cheered for the carload of gray-haired white women waving small cardboard signs and giving protestors a thumbs-up. They cheered as people drove by and applauded or waved at them. They cheered for the girl blowing bubbles from the back seat of the family SUV.
It remains to be seen whether people will continue to show up to protect our neighbors and ourselves, and what price any of us will be willing to pay to help move history forward.
But each shift of history begins with one person taking one step forward to help build the America we believe in and sometimes take for granted.
Let’s take that step and see where we can go.
