Hands Off rally

It was as gray and cold as it looks in the photos. Mainers are a hardy bunch. Lots of heavy coats and knit hats. Lots of signs. This rally, one of many, was held at the State House in Augusta, Maine. The capitol complex overlooks the Kennebec River, a connection I appreciated because we traveled north along the Kennebec on our way to Quebec City. It’s always good to orient oneself within the watershed.

There was music! I really loved it. I insisted that we move through the crowds to get near the band and check them out. A ragtag but dedicated group of mostly brass and percussionists. Their official name is the Huddled Masses Orchestra. Their main function is to play Serbian music at weddings! When they opened with the Star Spangled Banner, tears came to my eyes.

The trumpeters had a lot of little riffs that they used to punctuate the speakers’ points, either hopeful or disastrous, as required.

Some percussionists also walked with the crowds during the march, a little more than half a mile and very well marshaled.

There was a Palestinian table serving watermelon (symbolic because it’s the colors of the Palestinian flag) and handing out information. A joint speech was made by a Maine citizen from Palestine originally and a Jewish woman from Jews for Peace. It was very powerful and such a relief to hear open talk about genocide in an accepted manner by a crowd that size. Maybe 3000 people, they said, although the organizers had reportedly pulled a permit for 600.

Rallies and marches can be seen as a source of false hope. Or ineffectiveness. I have no illusions that these actions will affect the course of the administration and its supporters in the long or even short-term. But it affects something deep inside me and I expect in everyone who attended. A rise in courage, a confirmation that we’re not alone, a sense of people’s power.

I recently listened to a podcast interview of an Egyptian author, Omar El Akkad. His most recent book is about the reaction to the Palestinian genocide, called One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. Something he said taught me about the purpose of protests:

There’s an asymmetry of power. The state has the bigger weapons. The state has the narrative justification whereby the use of those weapons is almost never held to any kind of account. But there are other arenas. … Another arena where the asymmetry is in the other direction is the arena of joy. … Joy is also an asymmetric battlefield although in the other direction. — Omar El Akkad

Joy as an asymmetric battlefield, how fabulous and unexpected. A rallying cry that I saw expressed in the smiles and good feelings generated by everyone attending yesterday.

PS, My favorite sign, which I didn’t get a photo of sadly, was something like “Maine = Moxie, not Nazi.”

PPS, on the way home I found a quarter in the parking lot. A Canadian quarter. This felt significant.