By Arlene Aron
After our feeling of absolute devastation caused by the results of the last presidential election, some close friends and I felt we needed to do something. We needed to find a way to show people that we were out there for them. We needed to build a supportive community to show people that they were not alone.
We were already making calls to our representatives, but knew it wasn’t enough. We were very upset at the way our Congressional representative appeared to be heading in his complete support of the newly elected felon President.
My close friend Dasja is a second-hand Holocaust survivor who grew up in a totalitarian country. She was very worried we were heading in the same direction. Dasja initially suggested we meet once a week in front of our Congressional representative Bentz’s office.
We notified our local Indivisible group and managed to have a small number of people join us. We then moved our once a week rally to a more visible corner in our community and gathered a few more participants. Subsequently we decided that that location was both too dangerous and didn’t provide enough public exposure.
We moved to a larger safer intersection with broader exposure. We built up our numbers to about 15-20 regulars per week.
Still not satisfied with this, Dasja and I decided to start a banner brigade – something we had done previously during the felon’s first term. We found an appropriate overpass and talked to the local police to let them know we would be there a few days a week. It was a perfect spot with little cross car traffic and could be easily seen from both sides of the highway. We had existing banners from previous protests. We also reached out to ORD2 Indivisible to create some new ones for us. We were on our way!
Our group has grown, as well as our capability to form signs using letters we paint on poster boards, which gives us more flexibility to react quickly to the daily horrors this administration comes up with. We now have presence on three local overpasses. We show up on Talent overpass three times a week, and Medford and Eagle Point banner brigades show up once a week.
Our Talent overpass group has grown to be an amazingly dedicated group with between 15 and 20 participants showing up with great heart and intentions. We have been told by many that they love seeing our messages and appreciate our dedication to stand in heat, cold, rain and fog. We’re expecting to see some snow soon!
Other projects have sprung up from this group – like Art for Democracy (led by Dasja) and Bracelets for the Hispanic Community with PIRC’s phone numbers attached (led by fellow resistor Ellen).
When asked by folks why we keep showing up, we respond that it is to show our community we are still fighting this awful administration, and to give people hope and courage.
We have been making new friends and, in the process, succeeded in forming a wonderful close-knit community of resistors. We are always thinking of new ways to stand up. We hope that more folks will join us and be encouraged to do more to fight for our democracy.
Our efforts have been documented and bolstered by two dedicated photographers (Dasja and Gary) who have enthusiastically documented our presence.
ORD2 Indivisible is made up of some 2,000 activists living in Oregon’s sprawling Congressional District 2. Read more about them on their web site. You can also follow the Rabble Rousers’ activities in the ORD2 Discussion Page on Facebook.