April 8th: HANDS OFF! Resistance & More
- Libby Garvey
- Apr 8
- 3 min read
Dear Friends:
How uplifting it was to be down on the Mall on Saturday for the “Hands Off!” demonstration!
According to Indivisible, there were “1,300 events worldwide, with M more than 100k people
in DC, more than 250k in Chicago, and who knows about New York yet? Every single state
boasted protests, many with dozens spread across city centers and red and rural areas.
And, also Paris, Berlin, Brussels, London, Lisbon, Lyon, Nice, Ottawa, Guadalajara, and
more across the world hosted rallies. We saw Detroit protestors wave across the river to
protestors in Windsor, Ontario. We saw the town of Bolivia, North Carolina – population
235 – hold a protest with more than 235 people in the crowd. Check out this quick,
impactful video highlighting events in all 50 states and abroad.”
I hope many of my readers were able to participate on Saturday wherever they were. My
favorite interaction Saturday (just behind the fun of leading large group chants of NO KINGS
while walking with our bridge banner) was with two women very excited to realize that my small group were the people on the I-395 bridge that they and their husbands had been waving and honking at for weeks now. “We love you guys!”
Our experience using the Blue and Yellow lines to get downtown and back showed that Metro rose to the occasion. Metro employees were helpful and professional. They kept tens of thousands of people safe. Never take good professional service for granted.
My greatest respect and awe go to the small groups that came out even in red states where it is not so comfortable to be seen protesting, including a woman in Columbia, Kentucky who sat by herself with her walker and her dog. She said in her Facebook post that: ‘I sat in front of the new courthouse with … an “IMPEACH TRUMP” sign taped to my walker and my
“HONOR THE CONSTITUTION” sign taped to my back.’ She interacted kindly and wisely with everyone who talked to her whether anti- or pro-Trump. If you are on Facebook and want her whole story, here’s the link: Facebook Link
Common people, decent people are what make this country great and what will save our
Democracy. This brings me to our elite institutions and the supposed “leaders” of society: the big wealthy universities; the big wealthy law firms; the big wealthy corporations. While some are standing up, many are failing us. What cowards! They know better, have huge resources and should be covered in shame. They make it much harder for all of us to save this Democracy….but we will! These comments by Alan Rusbridger is are spot on:
“What if tech bros had held their nerve? What if ABC had told Trump they’d see him in court? What if Ivy League Universities had defended Columbia? What if big law firms had sued Trump? Cowardice is contagious. Welcome to the Great Grovel…
“Since Trump came to power cowardice has become contagious From the tech bros to the leaders of Ivy League universities, the great grovel to Donald Trump is well underway. What America needs now more than ever... Link to article
Cowardice is contagious, but so is courage! More demonstrations are coming up. We’ll be
updating the website with them and with other ways you can resist. No one has to do anything “big” but everyone needs to do something.
Yours in good government and resistance to bad,
Libby
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