In my conversations the past week with folks who want to come the Bush Protest rally on Wednesday, I’ve heard a LOT of complaints about the time of day of the rally. Many folks (especially those working low-income jobs) CANNOT take the time off work to attend this. And those are the folks most affected by the Bush Regime’s policies.
Upon reviewing the program schedule for this rally, I see that there are **eleven** speakers scheduled, something which I do not think is a good idea for an outdoor rally. It looks like Rocky Anderson and Cindy Sheehan are scheduled last.
So here is my suggestion to those of you who have to decide what portion of the rally to attend – IF you can take the time off of your jobs.
Come at noon so you can hear Sheehan. You may have the opportunity to hear the other speakers some other time, since they are local and some of them have repeatedly been speakers at other rallies so you may have even heard them before. But hearing Cindy Sheehan in person (assuming she will be well enough to keep her schedule) may be a once in a lifetime opporunity – so that should be your priority if you are faced with that decision.
The Latino Community was right on target with the immigration protests back on April and May – Weekends and evenings. This ensured that folks could make the rallies when they WEREN’T WORKING there (often) multiple jobs. And they got the numbers.
In the future event/rally organizers need to be sensitive to the fact that those that are most affected by America’s discriminatory policies need to be able to attend these things and be sure to plan accordingly to get these people out. We all too often cater to the armchair upper middle class activist popluation only and ignore those who are most affected. They have voices too and we need to hear and support them.
Come at noon – August 30 – City/County Buidling, Salt Lake City, 400 South 200 East.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 
In general I would agree with you. Last year’s anti-Bush rally was also in the middle of the day on a weekday — it’s one of the liabilities of trying to schedule something during time that we thought he’d be at the convention — we aren’t as lucky as last year in that Bush isn’t pinning down his speaking time to try to avoid what happened last year.
It’s not all bad, though–
One of the benefits is being able to march to the Federal Building while the offices are open to present the petition of grievances.
One of the other benefits of a daytime rally is that folks that work downtown can join us for their lunch break. An evening rally downtown after they’ve all commuted home and are tired and trying to get dinner on the table would leave those folks out. A rally on the weekend would be long after Bush was gone
Rocky really wants an evening program as well, I know that Crystal is working on something.
I know there are pros and cons to both. I heard even more complaints yesterday at the Muslim festival about the time of day from folks who stopped by our table.
The program last year was scheduled during the day, yes, because it was timed at the precise time Bush was speaking.
However, only 3,000 people attended. I’m comparing that to the Latino rallies on immigration which were held outside of the working day which drew 20,000 people. I just feel that the rallies we plan are too often targeted and catering to the white professional communities and hope that we can develop strategies to fix that. I’ve been reading some very interesting articles lately on this issue.