protest – Page 2 – Engaging Peace

I was there, Saturday January 21, 2017

Posted on January 31, 2017January 31, 2017 by kathiemm

u, Sarah’s mom (left) and sister (right) at the March for Women in NYC. Mom’s sign reads “Our rights are not up for grabs…neither are we!”

by Sarah Mensch

I always knew I’d be a protestor. I grew up in a household where Stephen Colbert and Keith Olbermann were always on TV, where Thanksgiving dinners were spent discussing politics. One of my first clear memories is of my dad swearing at the TV in 2000 as Bush collected more and more electoral votes. Political heat was no stranger in our home.

Here I am at the Boston rally, holding my sign.

I’ve always imagined protesting as “sticking up for the little guy,” so to speak; I thought I’d be fighting for LGBT+ rights, or immigrants and refugees’ rights. But when Trump was elected, things got personal.

Within minutes, Trump grabbed at the throats of “sanctuary cities,” of Planned Parenthood, and the Affordable Care Act. My mind turned to my mother and to my sister, who suffers from a chronic illness called POTS. It turned to my friends and me, who rely on the ACA’s policy allowing us to stay on our families’ health insurance plans until we turn 26. It turned to my grandfather, a refugee from Poland who survived the Holocaust because of our incredible melting pot. And I knew I had to fight.

Going to the Boston Women’s March was incredible. Even the walk to the Boston Common was exciting. People were blocking the streets, pushing old friends in wheelchairs or carrying little ones atop their shoulders. Their signs were funny, sentimental, or calls to action. And I had never seen so many people before; later, I learned that I was one among 175,000 marchers in Boston alone.

My view at the Boston rally before the March,

I think the speech Senator Warren gave at the March best summarizes the event: “…we believe that sexism, racism, homophobia, and bigotry have no place in this country,” she said. “Black lives matter; diversity makes our country stronger. We believe that equal means equal and that’s true in the workplace, it’s true in marriage, it’s true every place.”

While I expected this to be an angry march, something a little closer to a riot or a protest, all I saw was people loving each other.

Strangers were high fiving other strangers whose posters held messages that resonated with them. People moved out of the way easily, quickly, and without complaint to let handicapped marchers through. It became very clear to me that this was a celebration. We were here because we were proud of ourselves and of each other in our diversity.

Sarah Mensch, Research Assistant, Graphic Designer, is a psychology major at Boston University. She is thrilled to be working on a Directed Study focusing on the effect of the media on gun violence under the supervision of Dr. Malley Morrison. When Sarah graduates, she aims to go on to graduate school to earn an MSW and become a therapist. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys pursuing her minor in Deaf Studies, photography, and exploring Boston

Another one of Sarah’s favorite photos from the March:

My friends and I with our signs. I was so proud to stand with these women.

Amazing Grace

Posted on October 6, 2016October 6, 2016 by kathiemm

In these troubled times, I appreciate more than ever the spiritual Amazing Grace, especially the first stanza:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I’m found.

Was blind but now I see.

I have always found the melody grippingly moving, and always want to sing along, but it was probably the film version of Amazing Grace, based on the true story of the movement against the slave trade in 18^th century Great Britain, that imbued the song with the power it has for me. That world-shattering anti-slavery movement was led by William Wilberforce, who was inspired by English poet, clergyman, and former slave-trader John Newton (1725–1807), who wrote the song.

To me, Amazing Grace is not simply a rapturous expression of Christian faith, although Christianity was the particular vehicle embraced by John Newton to rescue him from the evils in which he had become ensnared. Rather, I see it as a song of redemption and hope that reaches out across estranging and often evilly-manipulated divisions of religion, race, gender, nationality. Also, I resonate to the idea of grace as a force and gift available to all, not restricted to people claiming a particular set of beliefs in a particular religion.

My recent fantasy was that somehow Amazing Grace could become a tenacious torrent of sound that would envelop all the pseudo-Christians, deceived disciples, and lost souls of other religions who profess love and peace but promote hatred and perpetrate violence. And while it was at it, I hoped the torrent would sweep up all the angry, frightened, defensive, and sometimes venemous people who vilify fighters against injustice.

Among the people I would like to see swept up are those who scorn Colin Kaepernick for standing up against racism by sitting down during the playing of a national anthem written by a slave owner, originally including a stanza degrading runaway slaves, and a sadly apt metaphor for a nation awash in centuries of murderous racism.

My grand fantasy for the future is that the world, before it is too late, will replace national anthems and battle hymns of republics with Amazing Grace and other songs that honor love and redemption rather than violence and vicious victories.

Time to face the facts

Posted on March 5, 2016March 11, 2021 by kathiemm

By guest author Dot Walsh

People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy is a new book by Robert W. McChesney with John Nichols, the popular national affairs correspondent at The Nation. The authors write that “The United States retains the facade of democracy. It remains a democracy on paper and in our hearts. But ours is, increasingly, a citizenless democracy…Oligarchs and their servants call the shots for the feudal serfs of corporate capital.”

As with the environment, the threat to democracy is dire. The United States has created, as Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison pointed out, the greatest wealth inequality since the 1920s. McChesney and Nichols warn us that the technological revolution is contributing to the ever-increasing wealth and power of a tiny minority of Americans at the expense of everyone else—a problem that needs a revolutionary solution to avoid the massive unemployment and undemocratization that will accompany unfettered capitalism.

All is not lost. People still have the vote and the economy has not completely crashed yet. There are some ways that citizens can take back their power and create a peaceful revolution. Locally, the willingness of ordinary citizens to protest against developments that endanger their lives and their environment can be seen in the opposition to new pipelines and fracking . On a broader level, social media like change.org provide a way for individuals and groups to speak out against powerful organizations engaged in harmful pursuits.

Dot Walsh is a lifelong peace activist and member of the Engaging Peace Board of Directors.

Marching with Occupy Boston

Posted on October 17, 2011October 16, 2011 by kathiemm

[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: This week we feature two posts from our regular guest contributor, John Hess of UMass/Boston, reporting on Occupy Boston.]

I have just returned from the demonstration to support Occupy Boston (10-10-11) and can happily report that it was a successful march of probably two or more thousand people.

Aside from flashes of déjà vu, a number of things struck me about the march. It was sizable, though there is certainly room for growth, growth that will almost certainly come.

There was a festive but serious atmosphere about the march. Simply being there with so many others who shared the same outlook was exhilarating. Though there was a fair amount of grey hair and grey beards in the crowd, and a fair amount of union representation, the large majority were students, or of that age.

These kids were not naïve thrill seekers or copycats. The ones I spoke with were sharp, aware, and committed, and above all enthusiastic. As we used to say, good vibes were everywhere.

For me, the march was a stunning and unmistakable refutation of some of the myths that have surrounded the Occupy Wall Street wave starting to sweep the country. One myth is that the students are naïvely copying protests of the ‘60s. The second is that what the protesters want is amorphous, airy, or uncertain. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Although there is no agreed upon platform of practical demands yet, this is in part because many of the protesters seem fully aware that both political parties are in the arms of Wall Street (as Mark Twain famously said in the Gilded Age, “We have the best government money can buy”), and that an appeal to Congress for reform is probably not the way to go at this moment. Nevertheless, there is a clear sense of agreement in political outlook, and this is best reflected in the chants and slogans of the march today.

John Hess, Senior Lecturer in English and American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston