A Revolution Without People

What does a revolution without people look like? That sounds almost like a Zen proverb, but this is what I witnessed Saturday in downtown Sleepytown. Two planned back to back protests were scheduled for the weekend at the state capitol grounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, so me and mi hermano decided to give it some objective coverage. It can be hard staying disconnected from the event when you attend so many of these events, . Sometimes I will be persuaded toward sympathy for ‘the cause’ (fill in the blank cause; depends on the protest) but at other times I’ll be drawn to mock the event for it’s lack of effect. It becomes more like an unfunny Monty Python sketch or something. That’s how Saturday’s protests went down.

In other parts of America, and the world, demonstrations were being held against the growing effect of President Donald Trump on everyone (and everything). Indy put out a quick call of action for a rally on Saturday to protest Trump, and to show unity in the fight against egregious things happening with the Dakota Pipeline (DAPL). I feel like it might be stirring up again, the temper of people, the ‘what-are-we-gonna-do-about-this?’ moment. I tell myself this could be different than the failed ‘Occupy’ protests I followed in Denver, Colorado starting back in 2011. Will a new breed of political zombies pop up to invade our neighborhoods, and if so, will they be effective?

The 2011 ‘Occupy’ Movement fell apart due to it’s lack of organization and focus. I will always remember the message scrawled on the sidewalk off Broadway and Colfax I saw down there during the Occupy Denver period. It read PROTEST SHIT. That, to me, defined the sheer stupidity in that crowd’s approach to a revolution. Protest shit? Really? Shit is too general a term; they needed a specific focal point everyone could get behind to push and break. Yet they could not settle on one cause. Diversity group’s of every imagined branch stood up with signs for their cause, and they were drowned out by a sea of other diverse groups…swallowed up in a stream of grievances.

The Saturday protest in Indy was scheduled for 3pm and we arrived on time with pens, scraps of paper to write on, cameras, batteries, drugs….we were ready to venture out into the February chill to observe and document this bitch. Sometimes protests take a while to build a decent crowd size, but after almost one hour I had the quick head count there at best to be 60 people. This one girl had a sign that read DON’T FEED THE BLACK SNAKE. My mind immediately went to thoughts of porno; luckily, mi hermano asked her about it to get the skinny behind who or what the Black Snake was. He’s great at approaching these people directly for information, asking all those questions you would like to ask people but usually don’t…and for those people who don’t ask questions, the Black Snake refers to the oil pipeline system running through the country. It looked like there were perhaps as many as eleven Antifa posers, kids smacked out in black attire but not associated with the real group that’s been smashing windows and wreaking havoc at other recent protests. There were people there to represent Native Americans, the Latino community, LGBT (growing to become the LGBTQIA), underprivileged of all sorts and sizes with at least one person to represent, yet it was failing. During that first long hour, they were prodding the small audience for anyone to walk up for ‘open mic’ and to come up and speak their grievance. You can imagine how quick that turned into a bitch session, therapy on the street at it’s cheapest and most unregulated. I think eventually all those points fell in on folks because they could sense the lack of real unity and charged spirits from those attending. No one felt the kinetic  energy you feel in a huge angry mob.

After a while I found out the first protest, the one I had thought was to protest Trump directly, was organized by the Indiana Socialist Party. It hit me; they were making it a fucking recruitment drive, not a protest against Trump. The second protest, the one headed up by the Indiana chapter of A.I.M. (American Indian Movement) drifted away after about twenty minutes of the crowd listen to a couple of speakers they could barely hear on a bullhorn. Both of Saturday’s protests could now be recorded as failures.

Well, sometimes these events give you gold, sometimes they are a washout with nothing but tiny fragments in the silt. This was the latter. We did shoot some great artistic photos and it is what it is for me; an observation of a revolt, not a participation. That’s why the Church is here, witnessing and reporting. I do believe there will be more protests in the future-in fact, a schedule is already developing for other events in the months ahead. Will those add toward a focus of stopping the Trump madness or will this new revolution fall apart from diverse interest? Will this end up like the 2011 Occupy Movement; failed, having us witness a decaying stop to the new breed of political zombies?

Let the Danse Begin

 “Will you won’t you will you won’t you
Will you join the Dance?”
– The Lobster Quadrille, Lewis Carroll

 The big entrance to really start the protest against Donald Trump began with a huge march on Washington by women and women’s advocate groups all over the globe. The response to the march from Trump supporters was dry and coy. They were certain that those who would oppose the Crimson King had their day in the sun with that march, and everything would calm down once they all went home. Jump forward from January 21st to February 1st and break away from D.C. to hit the streets on UC Berkley campus and that’s when we saw the real danse macbre begin. Greek born conservative author Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at Berkley, which caused the protest to start up on school grounds. Technology came to the aid of anyone wanting to follow the event as a lone soul with a phone, broadcasting on social media for Buzzfeed, captured the event live and streamed it to the world, unaided by conventional media channels. This was raw as it happened and I was able to follow the event online as students, onlookers, reporters and members of the radical group Antifa (Anti Fascist) banged it out in Cali. The twenty-first century civil war may have just started.

The new Administration sits huddled inside the White House and maneuvers law, constructing some new Donald Trump landscape throughout the country; his plans keep being taunted and challenged by adversaries and world leaders, but Don hangs tight to the Presidency. His recent plans and defeats are updated at an alarming rate, falling apart while his supporters tell everyone to ‘give him time’. He sent a team of Navy SEALS on a raid into Yemen which failed and resulted in the death of an American soldier. He proposed the Mexican border wall idea to a contractor friend of his (who has worked with Trump on a variety of his real estate projects) and was told it was “the most ridiculous thing” his contractor friend had ever heard-he turned the job down.  Protests at airports throughout the U.S.-Indy included-showed groups concerned with the new crackdown on immigrants and challenged the President’s orders. The Crimson King broods and waits for better news.

The Berkley scene was definitely what could be classified as the start of things heating up. The Trump era begins and we witness the christening from UC Berkley…infamous history locale of protests. Fade back in time to the Nixon years and remember what took place when we were protesting the war in Vietnam and racial inequality, the war on drugs. The cycle starts up again. Seems almost too poetic, too ‘made for tv’, but then again, this whole Presidency cycle has a tv drama feel all over it. Actually tv execs would probably say this story is a bit over the top. So not only were we able to follow this new Revolution online, as it happened, but we all got a good long look at Antifa in action. The black suited berserkers who stand opposed to fascists and Nazism, rushed in and destroyed bank windows, ATM machines and set small fires in the street. Antifa is what happens when you push masses of opposition to the point of desperation. I can’t recall seeing this much hate from so many in a long time. Protesters were repeatedly warned that if they did not disperse from the campus, they would be subject to arrest; pepper spray and rubber bullets were threatened-and used a few times-but the crowd stood firm and would not stop.The protest went on for around two hours and ended by bleeding into the streets of Berkley, away from UC campus, leaving smashed windows and metal barriers as evidence to their protest.

I feel there will be ample reports here from the Church as this era of demonstrations and revolt against the new President begins. I need to keep on top of this thing as it develops at a rapid pace. Donald Trump hasn’t even been in office a month and you can feel the tension beginning to build. As the months get warmer, the protests will grow. Political zombies will once again inhabit the cities and whoop their war cry….as proof to my theory, the day after the protest in Berkley, protest breaks out in New York outside New York University-which is where I have my eyes focused (online) as I write this. Two days away from a scheduled demonstration here in Indy and I wonder if the masses that gave the world Mike Pence are up to the challenge? Will they have a presence from Antifa? Will the streets get filled or will this end up a fizzle?
Let’s see…..