Life in Fitzwalkerstan is demoralizing, but in the past week Ive been reminded why its so important to keep fighting back, even though we lose so many battles and it all seems hopeless. As many people know, I go to the Capitol in the late afternoon most weekdays and sing until the building closes at 6 pm. Sometimes there are about a dozen of us, sometimes its just me, but usually there are two or three people. We sing from the first-floor balustrade rather than the ground floor, because that works better for a small group. My friend Ryan Wherley started this tradition when the mass arrests started, and its been chugging along ever since - tomorrow will be #350. When I arrived this past Thursday, another singer was already there, and she was anxious to get started. When I got to the balustrade, I could see why. Down on the ground floor was the chief of the Capitol Police, Dave Erwin, schmoozing with a group of well-dressed men and women hed apparently been showing around the building. This is a man who has told outright lies to the press about the people who participate in the Solidarity Sing Along; a man who categorizes me and people like me as no people because we question questionable orders, and uses that as the reason why we deserved to be handcuffed even though we put up no physical resistance; a man who gave the green light to arrest not just me but octogenarians and teenagers. This is a man who has completely bought into the authoritarian mindset of the Walkerites and is willing to brutalize people who fight against their policies and mentality. My companion and I stood above him and in his line of sight as we quickly decided on a song and got ready to sing. As soon as he saw us he tensed up. We began to sing our song, the Civil Rights classic Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around, and he immediately began to hurry his visitors out of the Rotunda. The other singer has one of the loveliest sopranos youll ever hear in the Rotunda, and she was in fine form. Some of the visitors seemed to want to stick around, whether out of curiosity or something else, so a few of them dawdled and would have clearly heard our second verse, Aint gonna let Dave Erwin turn me around, as would Erwin himself since he was near the columns trying to rush them all out. My point in telling all this is that we - just two middle-aged women who are no threat to anyone except that we just wont go away and leave the Fitzwalkerstanis to destroy the state in peace and quiet - *we* so rattled this man to the point that he turned tail and ran as soon as he realized that we were going to speak our minds by singing a protest song. And this is what can happen if you keep fighting. Yes, you will keep getting bloodied. Yes, every loss hurts like hell. Yes, it can be humiliating. But it also drives them a little nuts when you just keep coming back. And little by little, maybe we can chip away at their confidence, and show other people by example that its worth it to stand up to these bullies. Barbara With often tells us to keep singing because its working, and I think maybe shes right. No, singing wont save the world, but resistance will. We cant just lie down and let them walk all over us. We have to fight back, and keep fighting back, no matter how many battles we lose.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 22:04:31 +0000
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