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The rally was great, but I didn’t take as many pictures as usual because I had recruited a group of people who don’t go to protests frequently. Recruiting was one of the main points of this rally, so that was good, but it was a bit like taking third graders on a field trip. But I still got a few good ones.
Washington Monument, Washington, DCApril 5, 2025
Washington Monument, Washington, DCApril 5, 2025
Washington Monument, Washington, DCApril 5, 2025
Torches and pitchforks!
Washington Monument, Washington, DCApril 5, 2025
Some of our crew (me on the right)
zhena gogolia
Love the torches and pitchforks!
lowtechcyclist
@zhena gogolia:
Me too! I was never in a good position to get a pic of them, so I’m glad to see one here!
Matt McIrvin
I didn’t get pictures of my town’s really because I was in full paranoid safe-protesting mode and didn’t bring a phone.
I worry a bit that people are going to become complacent, and then Trump will bring the hammer down later in the spring or summer and a lot of people will die or get disappeared. But I also don’t want to discourage people from coming out because the more scared they are, the easier that will be for him.
Redshift
@Matt McIrvin:
The other reason I didn’t get as many photos is that I was test-driving our new “protest phone” (not a burner, obviously, but some level of disconnection from the rest of my online presence.)
I fully understand that everyone has to assess their own level of risk and that it’s higher for some people than others, but if most of us don’t come out and also communicate about it, we’re done for. As one of the anti-authoritarian writers said, be as safe as you can, but if you’re not doing things that make you uncomfortable, you’re not really resisting.
WaterGirl
Redshift, hoping your friends aren’t reading this post! :-)
Redshift
@WaterGirl: Hah! We joked about it while we were there. One of them said we should have brought a cord and made everyone hang on to it.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: Okay, that’s funny.
brantl
I think a sign should be captioned: “The new Drs. Frankenstein”, with the Great Orange FartCloud & fElon sMuk, to drive home the point of the pitchforks snd torches.
Matt McIrvin
@Redshift: I was initially a bit surprised at how white and elderly the protest demographic was, but decided it made sense: These were the people likely to stand the lowest degree of risk from showing up (definitely not zero, but lower), so it behooved us to do so.
BlueGuitarist
@Matt McIrvin:
Agree with you that participants were mostly those aware of being at least risk from participation, but
looking forward to data on age and recent protest participation.
Saw mostly, not entirely, white and older folks at 1 of the 3 demonstrations i attended, another demonstration had more* kids and younger people, 3rd had more* people of color, but overall mostly white and a lot of people over 60.
[*more = more than 1st demonstration, not necessarily more than white and older; not able to take pictures or maneuver around the crowd to get a better sense]
Saw an article that suggested Boomers highly visible participation April 5 might be because
1 Trumpism is erasure of the Boomer generation’s efforts for liberty, equality, peace, and the environment – and some boomers want to reassert that legacy against Trump & rightwing Boomers
2 Feel guilty about mostly sitting out recent protests
3 Retired or near retirement and more concerned than younger people about threats to social security
Saw a comment suggesting outreach for demonstration was mostly thru “elder-coded platforms”
not sure about any of that.
Guess participants are more likely to believe:
1 the situation is urgent
2 we have a moral responsibility to speak up,
3 protest can be politically effective
and as in the sign in the first photo
that courage is contagious
BlueGuitarist
Saw that demonstrations are planned for
Saturday April 19 and
Thursday May 1
but have seen little detail
hoping folks with more info will share.
Matt McIrvin
@BlueGuitarist: Organizers around Boston are basically holding off on April 19th because it’s Boston Marathon day here. (The same historical resonances that make it symbolically great elsewhere are ultimately the cause of this.) I think the only big demonstration in the region I’ve heard of is in Worcester.
BlueGuitarist
@Matt McIrvin:
Thanks
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin: They should do the protest the day before, which is after all the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride. We got rid of one king, and we’ll get rid of this one too.
bluefoot
I like the “Courage is contagious” sign. It’s been encouraging seeing people protesting even if in a lot of places the local news has been ignoring it. I’ve been thinking about what I want on a sign. Also thinking about guerilla art (stickers, chalk, etc) but no definitive designs yet.
Matt McIrvin
@bluefoot: I will give my very local news outlets credit: they covered ours. Both of them. Had crowd estimates that were very similar to mine, and I wondered briefly if they’d just Googled it and used me as the source.
Betty
I hope people show up to protest the El Savadoran President when he visits the White House on Monday.