So my first night protesting in Portland in a while. Brings back memories.
Here are a couple photos, though there should be more coming later when I have a friend’s phone available to me:
An EMT in a Tree.
Turns out, being an EMT at the protests can wear you out talking to people. Sometimes you just have to get away from all the people clamoring for your attention, so….
Next up, a Star Wars reference!
An organizer and medic wears a white cross-on-red with the word “Ewoks” filling the crossbar.
I spoke to this person about their shirt. She said she was part of a group of people that was doing the networking and connecting for the protests. In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the ewoks did tons of organizing as evidenced by their log traps and whatnot, and were absolutely necessary for eliminating the shield generator to make the raid on the 2nd Death Star possible, but the humans and the ship pilots got all the credit. She said their aim was to be like the Ewoks: worry about the organizing, not about the credit.
The purpose of the shirt, then? She said it wasn’t about getting notice or credit either. The purpose of the shirt was because it allowed people to recognize them and ask them for whatever they might need. The Ewoks wouldn’t necessarily provide it, of course, but because they’re the networkers, they know exactly where to go and whom to ask to get what you need.
There were things to dislike about the protests, of course. It was chaotic, as protests tend to me, and far from homogenous. As a result there were some people who were, shall we say, not my cup of tea. But there were lots of good things as well, and I’ll provide more on both another time. I must get some sleep.
Sleep well.
The treed EMT is actually being protected by an Ent.
Ents are, of course, notoriously slow to anger, but if roused, the gestapo won’t stand a chance.
Glad you’re safe! Saw on WHTM you were going and got a bit concerned. Not that you shouldn’t go of course; but obviously n current times one worries for people.
It’s surreal watching this from across the Pond; and seeing how little traction it’s getting in the news. The last four years has really made me think about history and context. It’s that thing that, with the distance of time, everything seems to have a clear narrative, but of course it wouldn’t have had the time. There was no script to follow, or obvious arc.
But weird things are afoot. I like to think it’s the last ditch counter offensive by an opponent that knows defeat is inevitable and the writing is on the wall. But who knows? I do worry it’s a boiling frog thing. Like that quote about the fall of the Roman Empire. No-one saw it at the time, but future historians could point back and say “Here’s where it happened”. But currently I don’t know if this is the last ditch battle for the future of society and which way the dice will ultimately fall.