I have always tried to be a good citizen…I pay my taxes….vote even in the midterms..donate to worthy causes, and give my time to projects I feel passionate about. However, I have never been a “real” activist. I remember, well, the protests of the 60’s, but I wasn’t old enough to participate, though I felt strongly about Civil Rights and ending the Viet Nam war. I did protest, briefly, after the 2000 election, mainly because I was a Palm Beach county voter who wanted the votes counted in my state. No reason to rehash that mess..we all know how that ended. Not well.
However, I have been propelled since November 8th out of my comfort zone (I am a introvert who has been dealing with agoraphobia for several years) into taking action and to the streets to protest the Abomination that is Donald J. Trump. I spent 18 hours on a bus to attend the Women’s March on Washington..and have attended every weekend protest in WPB since he has become POTUS.
Yesterday, I went even further out of my comfort zone and drove 2 hours north to the “belly of the beast”..Melbourne, to protest outside of the Trump rally. To say I felt some trepidation about doing this would be accurate. However, I felt strongly that showing support for the Women’s Resist Movement in Melbourne, was the right thing to do since this community is a small dot of blue in a sea of red. I am glad I pushed myself, because it all worked out well and was completely safe, despite the fact that we were surrounded by thousands of Trump loyalists.
Here are some things I feel people here should know, since I had read several comments prior to this protest from individuals who thought protesting at this rally was a mistake. I respectfully disagree with those opinions. Why? Because I now know the police are committed to keeping us and them safe, so every protest I have gone to has been set up so that protesters are kept separate and safe by police from those that disagree with them. For instance, in D.C, where we were the majority..the protesters to our March were kept several blocks away from us, with the police standing between them and any of us. In WPB, every weekend there are police doing the same. They are not preventing us from protesting, just doing their job of keeping the peace. And lets face it, many of them are probably Trump voters themselves, but I have not experienced any hostility from the police I have encountered at any of the rallies. We are polite to them, and they have been polite in return. I think this has to do with all the organizers of these protests and rallies…communicating and working with police. They are committed to making these protests safe and peaceful. I really, truly appreciate all their hard work to make this happen. They are all heroes in my book. Bravo!
Yesterday, there was somewhere around 1,500 plus of us protesting, directly across the street from the thousands of Trump loyalists heading to the rally. And between us and them was a 4 lane road with a median in the middle. Yes, we did have plenty…and I mean plenty of Trump supporters driving by flicking us off and screaming “losers”…”get a job”…etc. And each time, if they were going slow enough, we saluted them with a peace sign and chanted “Love trumps hate”. We did as Michele Obama so wisely instructed..”when they go low, we go high”. We did have a few Trump people go to the median to shout at us, but they were quickly told by police to get back to their side of the street.
The point I am making…peaceful protest is not only our right, it is our responsibility, especially when our nation and Constitution are being threatened by an Authoritarian Oligarch, who has no respect for anyone, let alone our government or for the majority of its citizens. I truly feel the only way we can stand up against this threat is to stay active and to RESIST. We must do everything in our power to undermine this man and his Regime’s dangerous agenda. We cannot be allowed to let time or the media “normalize” him, which could happen since he is throwing so much at us, all the time. We must fight because it is hard to stay energized when are up against a Republican Congress who are putting their party over our Country. However, I truly feel, with time and continued diligence through our physical presence, we can slowly chip away at his credibility and arrogance, by making him look like the petty, Narcissist that he we know him to be. He does not have a MANDATE, nor the MAJORITY…and with every well attended protest…the world will see that we are the Patriots that are defending our nation and Constitution from tyranny. We can show the world that America is still the home of the brave.