Monday, February 17th, was a National Day of
Protest. All across the country, people gathered to protest what the Trump
administration is doing to America. I was one of those people. My wife and I
showed up downtown Fort Myers by the courthouse about 10 minutes before noon
and the rally was supposed to start at noon. At first, about 50 people were
standing there with us but I would say by 12:30 there were maybe 200 people. I
was a little disappointed with the turnout but this is Southwest Florida which
is very red.
As I was standing with the crowd, I took note of the people
that were standing with us, most were White senior citizens such as myself. There
were a handful of Blacks and a few Hispanics. Considering that it was President’s
Day and the schools were closed there were very few young people. That
disappointed me because it is their future and the young people have so much to
lose. Growing up in the middle of the Vietnam War and seeing the protest back then,
maybe we were just a little bit more socially conscience. Then again with today's social media maybe
standing on street corners chanting slogans in protest is just old fashion. There
weren’t people with megaphones trying to excite the crowd and the group was
very respectful. I remember a young man riding his bike past us yelling “Free
Speech” not to harass us but to encourage us. Exercising our Free Speech is
exactly what we were doing.
There was not a lot of press there and, to be truthful, I
didn’t expect much coverage because much of the press is failing our country.
There was a young reporter from the News-Press, the local rag here in Ft. Myers,
interviewing people who were willing to talk with her. I saw a very nice
article written by her that was posted on the News-Press’s website. I guess Gulf
Coast News did eventually show up and put together a small piece for their
morning news. One thing that I didn’t see was any police, none of which I
thought was a good sign. We were there to exercise our right of “Free Speech”
to promote change which is guaranteed at least for now in our Constitution. When
the reporter from the News-Press asked me why I was there I said “I feel that
we, as Americans, are failing to leave behind a bright future for the younger
generation. My granddaughter, she’s a junior in high school. What are we
leaving her? What are we leaving my grandson who’s a freshman in college? We
are not leaving them the America that was left to me by my parents. That’s what
everybody, Republican or Democrat, should be concerned about. What are we
leaving behind to the next generation”.
As we were standing there many of the cars would honk their
horns at us and give us a thumbs-up sign which would send up a cry for the
crowd. Of course, many just ignored us like we were invisible and that was ok
too. There were of course those who would give us “the finger” and that would
also send up a cry from the crowd. I don’t want to use stereotypes but it
always seemed to be that huge jacked-up truck with the huge oversized tires
that didn’t approve of us exercising our “Free Speech”. Just because a person has “Free Speech”
doesn’t mean that you have to listen. They could have just driven by and
ignored us but no, they had to harass us instead.
During Trump's first term in office, we saw many protests.
The biggies were the “Black Lives Protest” and the “Women's Rights Protest”. Under
Trump, Black lives didn’t matter and this time around he is showing it even
more. Of course, he doesn’t say that you don’t matter. He says that one of the
problems in America is DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion which is the new “N-word”.
Part of the unsaid thing of his anti-DEI statements is that anybody who isn’t White
doesn’t matter. I know some people will say that I am being too critical and people
who get ahead because of DEI are people who are not qualified compared to the White
person who has been passed up. They have said for years that it is reverse
discrimination. Someone is going to have to explain to me why the system of discrimination
that DEI replaced was so much better. They have also used DEI to say that
Women’s rights don’t matter either. They fired the head of the Coast Guard, a
very decorated leader, claiming that she was a DEI hire because she was a
woman. Every minority and every group that is marginalized by this
administration needs to start gathering under one flag of solidarity. Only
through unity and solidarity can we prevail. If we fail then Black Lives will no
longer be important and Women's rights will be a thing of the past.
In the 60s much of the unrest started on the campuses.
Monday, February 17th being President’s Day, many of the schools
were closed. Even though they were closed the turnout of the young people here
was very small and that saddened me. The policies and the discrimination that
there is today will just be another problem they will have to solve in the
future. The more policies that put people's lives and the life of the planet in
jeopardy the harder it will be for them and their children. The more people
that they send into poverty the more suffering they will have to solve. The
time to start is now. It is all going to be their problems so they need to
start standing up to those old White guys that wish to burn it all down before
they go so nobody has anything to pass onto future generations.
We can influence what the press covers. Get friends and other protesters to contact the local tv stations and ask why they didn’t cover it. Educate them. Your protest was one of hundreds around the country. Birmingham AL had 250 people at Indivisible protest and 100+ at @50501 protest down the street. People protesting at all over anything in red areas is huge. Review past coverage. Did they cover conservative protests of the same size in the past? Call them on it.
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