“Never Give Up. Never Surrender”? Well, duh.

By Denise Dumars

President of the Board, Society for Ritual Arts

I don’t normally write essays unless somebody pays me to do so, but in this case I’m making an exception, and I’m going to share this far and wide because some of the political action groups I belong to are doubting the purpose and efficacy of the peaceful protests that we have been seeing all over the country, redoubled recently due to the murders by ICE of Renee Good and Keith Porter. Some political groups say that protesting does nothing and even disparage it as some kind of vanity action. In doing so, however, they are missing a number of important points.

First of all, it’s important for those of us who are decent people to gather together. To come together with hundreds or thousands of fellow citizens who share a belief in the dignity of human life is a powerful thing psychologically. Just knowing that there are others who believe as you do—despite what the government or the media might tell you—is enough to keep some people going instead of giving up. Seeing the people who gathered yesterday in my hometown and the very many people who honked and waved and otherwise supported the protesters was a powerful reminder that there are still good people in the world. Fear didn’t keep those people home. Fear didn’t keep people from agreeing with us. Inertia and despair didn’t rule the populace who showed up and those who supported the ones who did.

Secondly, protesting is a kind of networking. Learning what may and what may not work in preserving the Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights is not something reserved for some political science class, but is something best exercised in real time. What other ideas might protesters have for securing our liberties? What abilities and resources do they bring to the table? If we don’t meet others, we might not ever know. Not everyone is connected online, and many of those who are might not feel safe sharing ideas in that environment. In-person contact is not only safer but also more encouraging.

Observing who shows up is a revelation as well. Clearly a minority of people who live in the area attended. The majority of persons of color in the area most likely did not feel safe doing so; the same case may be made for why more younger professionals did not attend as well. I don’t mind saying that, as a retired woman, I have the freedom to protest. I don’t have to worry about losing my job if I am identified or having ICE show up at family members’ homes to intimidate them. I don’t have any family in the area, and I’ve lived the best part of my life already, so I have much less to lose than those who are being routinely targeted by ICE. I would imagine that a large percentage of the older people who attended feel the same way.

ICE and other government officials need to remember this: people with little to lose will often not hesitate to put themselves in danger to protect others who do have a lot to lose. I don’t think the people I saw protesting yesterday were afraid of anything. And being there with others who feel the same way emboldens people. Not only is there power in numbers, but there is encouragement as well.

In addition, it may not seem like what we’re doing is changing things, but bear in mind that the protests in Minnesota over Renee Good’s murder have scared the government, which is why they are cracking down in that state, busting down peoples’ doors and doing irrational, ridiculous things. We have them running scared. In the short term, this makes them more dangerous, but in the long term those who are afraid are at a disadvantage because they are not thinking rationally. Keeping calm and rational while protesting is showing the fascist state that we will not stand for repeated forms of oppression. It is playing the long game. Yes, the oppression escalates in the short term; in the long term it cannot win.

What Trump’s cabinet and allies are doing is destroying the country. The degree to which it is destroyed may depend on how many of us can convince our right-thinking elected officials that we mean business and will not stand for this tinpot dictator. Emails and letters go unnoticed; phone calls may be harder to ignore but certainly the photos and filmed coverage of the protests are more convincing to our elected officials. We must remind them constantly that they work for us, not the other way around. Standing up to the excesses of the federal government at this time may be the only way. The fact that we do not show ourselves as an angry mob but rather as citizens who will assemble within the letter of the law is powerful PR, more so than whatever the Trump administration is trying to push because people can see for themselves what is happening.

Many other kinds of mass action, such as a general strike, might have more of an effect but such things are harder to organize and harder to convince people to do. Protesting keeps those holding signs that say “If Kamala were president I’d be at brunch,” engaged because humor is disarming and people who could be at brunch will want to get to a place where they can do so again instead of having to constantly fight for rights that have already been decided by elections and laws.

Even if the only thing the demonstrations did was encourage us to keep trying then they are worth it. I wonder, honestly, how many suicides we are preventing by standing up for ourselves and others. I can tell you for certain about one that was prevented because it was my own. Don’t tell me that what I do doesn’t have an effect. Where there’s life there’s hope: it may be a cliché but that’s because it’s true. Galaxy Quest’s “Never give up; never surrender,” may be the slogan of a humorous science fiction film, but as I’ve said before, humor is a powerful motivator. Besides, have you seen these people who are trying to oppress us? Good grief, South Park doesn’t have to work hard to parody them because they are parodies of themselves.

So denigrating the efforts of well-meaning people is self-defeating. We’re out there on the front lines while you’re trying to figure out what else to do. As that other saying goes: lead, follow, or get out of the way. Any effort is better than no effort.