Patriots Protest "Smoothing" Over the 2004 National Election Debacle
I am grateful to Alexis Adair for organizing the protest and very glad I participated.
Because it was small people were friendlier than you might find at the large marches and so happy to see others join us – seems that many, many people are watching this election debacle in the closet. It was interesting to find people there who are not normally political but are so freaked out by what is going on that they feel they have to do something. Unfortunately, no media - of course.
I am convinced we should do it again next Saturday and will take on the organizing if Alexis can't do it again. I bet we end up with twice as many people just through word of mouth from those who attended and maybe some media. If we do publicity further in advance, and things start to happen with the introduction of Jesse Jackson into the recount effort, we may actually get press.
Alexis said she has 4-5 people who are pr types who will help. So I think we MUST do it again. Repeating the message always makes for a stronger delivery, and I bet there are many people who were out of town for the holiday who would normally be present.
To give you a sense of the vibe, I met a great mother/daughter team who were so enthusiastic. They came with big yellow signs and chanted and smiled and brought the best energy to the effort. I was the only one to come dressed in red, white, and blue – New Yorkers seem to live in black – so we weren’t as colorful as the protesters in Port Townsend, but there were plenty of black boxes.
Conchita came with me and attracted tons of attention so I will bring her again. She is a good protest dog and has come to every march with me except this summer for the Republican Convention. Next week I will give more thought to politicizing her presence through a banner on her sweater or something.
It was a wonderful surprise to arrive a bit late and find more people there than just me and Alexis! She says we numbered about 50 at the strongest point, but it felt more like 100 to me. People brought original, handmade signs and black boxes and were revved up and vocal.
