I have been encouraging everyone I know to attend next week’s rally to protest the Bush administration. I now understand that there will be several rallies going on, which is great. The more the merrier.
I was part of the original group that began planning for this event. I and many others dropped out of the planning because the planning process became manipulated, stacked, and painful. Decisions that were made at previous meetings were re-made again and again. Last year it took FIVE DAYS to pull together an amazing rally for Bush’s visit on August 22, 2005. This year the planning process began at the beginning of July and there has been nothing advertised on websites(that I’ve seen)- only newspaper articles. Fliers have not yet come out (well, they have just yesterday but they have typos in them). Many folks wanted a new and different kind of rally, but it sounds like it will be the same type of rally that has always been planned with multiple speakers, something that I and many others want to get away from doing.
So I decided that I did not need to be part of this (the organizing). As Emma Goldman stated, “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Well, I’m still going to attend and protest, but I’ll be doing my own thing there, along with some others. The fun of organizing went out the window for me when folks showed up with all their friends and family to stack votes, when people called each other names, when the decision-making process was manipulated to meet a few peoples’ agendas. So be it.
In our conversations with Cindy Sheehan last weekend, we found that she is excited to come to SLC (although we are worried since she had a hysterectomy just yesterday and hope that if she is not well enough, she will cancel this gig). We learned from her and others that you CAN make a statement by being bold and standing up to get hour voice heard. Many folks that we talked to started their activism off by just doing things themselves (more on this in a later post). Organizing doesn’t have to be elaborate, drawn out, or “painful”. When it gets to be that way, it’s too big and not as effective.
So my message here, in a round about way, is to show up with your signs on whatever issue is bugging you regarding the current U.S. administration. Talk to people. Network. Discover how you can keep being involved instead of just waiting for the next rally.
It is likely that this rally well go very smoothly – and I sincerely hope it does. The media has been paying attention to this rally because of the public figures that will be involved. Most folks won’t know what went on behind the scenes, which is a good thing. I am sure that part of the reason why many folks don’t participate in activism here in Utah is because of all the turmoil that occurs within the activist community, exascurbated by a small handful of individuals who insist on controlling the organizing scene.
MOst of all, don’t wait for others to organize – do it yourself. I’ll be posting ways here on my blog on how you can get your voice heard without all the ups and downs of organizing in a big group, which, especially here in Salt Lake, seems to be more and more cumbersome and…..just not fun in many cases.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 