Monday, February 17^th, 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 17^th 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.