What You Can Do
Preamble
With the mountain of information thrown at the public everyday, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. This is the intended purpose of information overload. This is exactly how they want you to feel: helpless. A helpless public doesn’t raise questions. An overwhelmed public doesn’t mobilize or protest.
However, we don’t have the privilege of standing frozen in fear. While we all look around for a hero to save us, our lawmakers are sliding through deals at 1am to devastate the American people. This particular bill, kicks millions of Americans off healthcare and adds trillions, $4 trillion to be exact, to the debt ceiling. For what, exactly? Does this make housing more affordable? Does it make groceries cheaper? No. It expands the military and border security. I would love to link an article about the laws being passed to benefit the American people, but I cannot find any.
No one is coming to save us. We need to save ourselves. You need to save yourself. Yes, you, reading this. For some people, that means fleeing. For others, it means fighting. Neither is wrong. But it’s time to take a stance. Make your decision while you still have the choice to.
We are standing on the precipice of fascism. Tyranny does not come with raucous noise and flashing lights. It is not as black and white as it appears in our history books. It is sliding down a gravel hill that slowly grows steeper, clawing at the ground for something to stop your fall. Let’s hope, with filthy, bloody hands, that we manage to catch ourselves before we hit the bottom.
Action Items
Part 1: Social Media
You’re likely already doing this: posting the crimes and abhorrent behavior of this administration on social media. This is the easiest step to take. Make no mistake: social media is NOT an end goal.
For every 1 action taken on social media, take 1 physical action to match it. All talk and no action is exactly what the rising facist regime wants you to do.
Protect Yourself: any posting you do should be from a VPN. Even American citizens are not safe from deportation under this regime.
Part 2: Posters
Not everyone is on social media, but everyone needs to grocery shop or get gas. This is another opportunity for education. Check out our library of posters, pick some of your favorite, and print them out. Most counties allow you to legally post signs smaller than 12 inches, so standard printer size (11″ x 8.5″) is a perfect poster size.
Place these posters in high traffic areas where you know they’ll be seen. If they’re torn down, put up 2 more. The people of this country deserve to know who is to blame for making their lives worse.
Part 3: Support Community
If you’re not able to donate your money to local organizations, donate your time. If you look up “(your city) Community Resources”, you’ll find community activities and classes you can attend. Get in contact with your city’s officials to help run activites. It’s easier than you think!
Part 4: Be a Nuissance
No, I’m not kidding. Your representatives are beholden to you, and no one else. Call, write emails, show up outside their office, scream, bang a drum, and do anything that forces them to notice you. They are public servants; don’t let them forget that. Your vote keeps them in this job.
The only way they should stop hearing from you is if they are acting in your best interest. Crash out at these people. They will only know peace when they turn their backs on billionaire donors and turn towards the people.
Protest Etiquette
One of the most common ways to show your displeasure with the government is through protest. Even historically, protesting has had its risks. We can no longer count on the rule of law being upheld, nor can we rely on the right to due process and a fair trial. If you think minding your business and exercising your constitutional right to peaceful protest is enough to protect you, you need to read more news. Following theses steps ensures a powerful protest while protecting yourself and the ones you love.
Our power is in our numbers and consistency. This is not a fight won by force, but by clever planning and strategy.
Protect Yourself
Make yourself as unrecognizable as possible. Wear gloves, a face mask, a beanie, and loose, generic clothing. Take out piercings and hide anything that can be used to identify you. This is not done for cowardice, but out of necessity. You should be able to exercise your constitutional right to protest without risking harassment or violence in your daily life. Unfortunately, this is the only way to guarantee that.
Care for Your Community
While protesting, carry a small first aid kit on you. You never know what can happen; someone could trip and need a bandaid or take a rubber bullet to the eye. Either way, basic first aid equipment is better to have and not need than to need and not have.
Let’s split up, Gang!
This might seem counter intuitive, but if you’re organizing a protest, split your group. Have half of your group march one way and half of your group march the other way. Split your group into thirds, or even fourths. The reason for this is to minimize police interruption.
It’s really easy to disrupt and descend upon a single group of people, not matter how large (especially when the opposing side has tear gas and rubber bullets). However, as much as the police may seem like an indomitable force, there are only so many of them. No police force has a 1 to 1 ratio of citizens to officers. Splitting a protest means the police can’t stop you all and more people will see your message. A group of 100 people protesting uncontested gets more eyes on your message than 1,000 immediately stopped by the police.
Get Silly
Ice agents and police are disappearing people while hiding their own identity. Private citizens have the right to anonymity, but public officials and servants do not, especially when preforming official job duties like detainment and deportation. The people have a right to know who is arresting them and why; this is the reason your Miranda rights are read to you at the time of arrest. Without clear disclosure of the reason for arrest and who is arresting you, there is no seperation between arrest and kidnapping.
Help others identify public servants by throwing them a little party. Carry glitter and silly string with you to protest and use it liberally. Remember: the purpose of this is to aid in identifying federal agents, not to cause harm.
Have Fun!
It’s easy to get lost in the despair of what you’re protesting. Remember that you’re surround by people who are protesting the same thing you are. You likely have more in common than you think.
Dance, make friends, listen to music.
In recent days, I’ve been thinking more and more of this quote from Dan Savage:
“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing.”