Life of an activist



Third Saturday in a row that I've spent my afternoon at a protest rally. Sixth rally I've been to in the last three weeks. Activism has become all the rage and I'm all about it. While I grew up going to demonstrations and typically have shown up to marches and protests alone, now that Trump is in office it seems like every one is down to march and picket and push back. I'm so down for it!

 This specific rally was to protect Bears Ears National Monument and Grande Staircase Escalante National Monument from the god-damned oil hungry Trump homies. Utah has a nice ass layer of shale oil beneath most of our national parks and we've got to show up every day to keep Republican hands off of that land. This particular weekend, Secretary Zinke was in town researching Utahn's relationships with our national parks. So we all showed up at his meetings with our signs and voices. I hope he got the idea- we indeed do give a fuck.

  In contrast to all the protests I've been to, this one seemed to be homogenous with upper middle class, middle aged white folks who probably drove there Subarus and likely brought their dogs along. My favorite part however, was when all those white folks just were quiet for a good two hours. Every one was still and listening intently as the Natives of different tribes took to the microphone to share their stories. Protesting in solidarity with our native brothers and sisters is what made this rally effective and progressive. As white people, we need to listen to our native homies with mouths shut and hearts open!





I know what you might be thinking if you've never been to a protest march or demonstration: do you really think you are making a difference with your signs and marches? And my answer forever and always will be: Hell yes. And here's why. This is community building stuff. People are coming together en masse. Newscasters are following our trails, social media is flooded with our photos and our hashtags are being seen by every one to learn about. Protests, rallies and marches are all based on raising awareness, exercising our freedom to gather and freedom of speech and to stand up for what we think is right. With out these simple tools of activism, we would tread water and eventually drown.




Keep on showing up. 

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