The Colorado State Open Thread is written for a variety of reasons, especially to provoke comments from people who are interested in our square(ish) state, whether you are here or not. This question came up during my Quaker-Unitarian-Other discussion on Sunday morning about demonstrations and protests. What purpose gets you off your couch and out into them? What gets you to consider your action a success or not? Do you take action again and again, consistently, or are you just an inconsistent participant? Here in Estes Park, I’ve been doing the major protests, as well as protests in support of the National Park, but there are people who are waving signs every Wednesday at noon and they have been doing so rain or snow or shine for a long time. They have been far more dedicated than I have been.
There was a lot of discussion about the reasons why people might be involved in the protests / demonstrations. Should these protests graduate as they have in California and a few other locations to taking action against federal agents to block their questionably legal duties? What determines such a change? I can say in Estes Park people were congratulating the Police and vice versa how peaceful the protests were, but I don’t know of any ICE raids having occurred in Estes Park. I do know the immigrant agencies have taken measures to make sure their documented and undocumented people know the laws should immigration agents show up at the doors of workplaces, churches, schools, or any other gathering places where a sweep might try and collect a number of people for deportations, legal or illegal. We are under no illusions that Estes Park is immune from being terrorized by ICE and DHS.
Down in Denver, I know people did escalate protests to the next level or two. People were arrested for blocking (or at least trying to block) roads; news reports said that pepper balls and gas cannisters were used on the crowd. What motivated the crowd to step up their protests to that next level? Did they go to the protest determined to provoke the police so they would be arrested? Was that their goal, or did they just set feet before each other to see how far they could get out onto the street before the police would respond, and once they did, it was too late to get out of the police’s way?
I have never been arrested, or close to being arrested. That I know of. The most uncomfortable I have felt at a protest site was at the 99% encampment in Denver’s Civic Center Park where in the heart of winter, the police had said they were going to remove the encampment but they hadn’t said when. I had gone with some clothes for the campers, some other supplies and I was providing transportation to one of Daily Kos’ most prolific contributors of the time who was a big motivator of the 99%. He was able to rouse the 99% and we had a rally.
A very cold rally
A snow cave in Civic Center Park in October, 2011
A couple days after that, the encampment was cleared and Occupy Denver was pretty much over.
So I ask again — Why are you protesting? What do you hope to achieve? Please answer in the poll down below — maybe in a general sense. Are your goals able to change? What would cause your goals to change? How far are you willing to go?
I certainly don’t want you to put down on this public blog the answers that might be coming to you in the depths of your soul. I would like you to think about what you might be willing to do. How far you would be willing to go? Would you be willing to commit time? Would you be willing to commit money? Would you be willing to commit resources (make signs, print shirts, distribute water to marchers, drive people to demonstrations, more)? At what point would your willingness to do more, change? If you can think about it now, maybe it might be easier should that time ever become necessary.
Is it time to step up and help your country? Your state? Your neighbors? Think about it. The floor is yours...
