March 15, 2005
Is it only me who thinks this is a waste of time?
by Liza Sabater
Troops Out Now! Demonstrate March 19 in Central Park, NYC!
MARCH TO CENTRAL PARK ON SAT. MARCH 19th, 2005THE WHOLE WORLD WILL BE MARCHING AND WATCHING
10:00 AM - Marcus Garvey Park
124th St. and 5th Ave. to 125th St. and Lennox Military Recruiting Station...NOON - Central Park, East Meadow
97th St. and 5th Ave.3:00 PM - March to Mayor Bloomberg's house
Demand: FUND OUR CITIES - NOT WAR!
Don't get me wrong. The war is wrong and we need to get our personnel the hell out of there.
I feel these modern day protest organizers seem to be to grassroots politics what kitsch is to folk art. I feel they've taken something that was a powerful expression of political outsideness and turned it into a formulaic and mass-produced way of staying outside of politics.
Political marches seem not to have the significance they used to have. They seem to come out of nowhere, do these marches and then disappear. Unless they have a very public fight with the mayor over the issue of march and/or protest permit. Then they vanish in the background again.
Is it just me who feels like this?
Posted by Liza Sabater in Activism, Grassroots, Liberalism, Politics, War
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Say it loud, say it proud!
I think the protest will probably accomplish nothing in terms of changing the government's decisions. But, I think it may serve a therapeutic purpose for the people participating. I'm not sure, but if people feel their votes are not counted, maybe there's a certain emotional release in participating in a protest, that people feel as if they're doing something. Modern-day tilting at windmills. And I think you're right about the theatre aspect of all of it, too. Like it's become a staged ritual that we enact to express our displeasure, but ultmately, it's just symbolic.
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Comment by: Carolyn at March 16, 2005 10:33 AM
No, I feel you babe. I saw some kids in Union Square yesterday with a big yellow sign that said, "Get the troops out of Iraq now or face MUTINY!" Mutiny? From 5 kids wearing hemp-pants? It's not gonna do any good. What's really hard is the dilemma between realizing that your efforts will be fruitless and therefore not wasting the energy or just not caring enough to do anything. It's sad. I think the only way to get the troops out of there is for the troops to start saying they want out of there. A lot of the powerful protests in the Vietnam era had former soldiers rallying behind the cause, and you don't see that as much now. Or maybe we're not allowed to see it? Who knows...
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Comment by: avery at March 20, 2005 07:56 PM
I'm right with you. Just like I'm sure sometime soon they're gonna have marches in Philly to protest all the killing that's been going on. Umm...what exactly is that supposed to do? Okay, we're gonna march @ 3:30 (complete with the tassel-booted step team), make a couple speeches, get on the news, and go home. Then, 'bout 10:30, 11:00, the drug dealers and shooters will be back out, talking about how much they enjoyed the show.
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Comment by: lorraine at March 15, 2005 09:21 PM