"The Charbor Chronicles": Some Images From Yesterday's "Hans Off" Protests Around the Globe

Yesterday, there were planned protests against the Trump administration and fascism and wealth addicts like Elon Musk. In cities all across the United States, and even some protests in other countries, including Germany and Great Britain.

Now, let me make it clear right away: I did not participate in these protests. The images I am sharing are from a Facebook friend, and I am not even sure that he went to one of the protests, either. As for me, my work schedule had this as one of my "brutal weekends." That is to say, I worked all three overnight shifts (Friday night into Saturday morning, Saturday night into Sunday morning, and Sunday night into Monday morning), plus my regular day shifts (7 AM until 3 PM) at my weekend job. So working five full eight hour shifts pretty much wipes me out, both in terms of time and energy.

That said, I fully support the cause of these protests. It did me some good to see many of these images. Somehow, it was as moving to see decent numbers of people in places like Missoula, Montana, and Portland, Maine, as it was to see images of massive protests with thousands (possibly tens of thousands?) of people in more conventional places like New York City and Philadelphia and Washington.

It reminded me of when I did actually participate in physical protest marches many years ago. Back then, we were protesting what most of us felt was encroaching fascism domestically, and the unjust and immoral Mr. Bush's war in Iraq.

My sign back then was "Stick Between Iraq and a Hard Place," which I thought at the time was fairly clever. However, I saw one which did one better, which read "Stuck Between Iraq and a Hard Case." Now that one I wish I had come up with.

Protesting is not always popular. Some people seem to view it as a betrayal of the nation.

Not me. In fact, to me, this is what democracy looks like. It was never meant to be pretty. Freedom - by which I mean real freedom - is not about jingoistic symbols that conjure images of patriotism. The image of a bald eagle with the American flag, or the Statue of Liberty or the Liberty Bell or the Capitol Rotunda, or many other alterations might appeal to people. But to me, real freedom is protecting unpopular speech. It is people speaking out when they feel strongly about an issue or issues. That is what former slaves attempted to do to end slavery in the 19th century. It is what women tried to do in the 19th century at Seneca Falls and beyond, and which went right into the early 20th century in trying to win universal suffrage. It is what Martin Luther King and Malcom X were doing during the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's. It is what the gay and lesbian community were doing from the 1960's until the early 21st century. Ultimately, there were landmark pieces of legislation or court cases which recognized the need to expand rights to these previously overlooked and underappreciated people. There were civil rights legislation acts passed in both the 1860's and, one century later, the 1960's, ending first slavery and then legalized racial segregation and de facto white supremacy. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, and women's rights have slowly but surely expanded since. So have the rights of the gay community, with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage throughout the United States only a decade or so ago.

So progress has been made. But it is rarely pretty. And it is even more rarely won with the approval of those who proclaim themselves patriots by waving the American flag, but threatening opposition and telling anyone who opposes their narrow-minded vision of the United States to "love it or leave it."

Protests like these feel especially necessary right now, when American democracy has never looked so fragile. We have not seen such a measure of blatant authoritarianism and attempts at installing fascism as we have since January 20th of this year. So it is necessary for Americans - both those who oppose this regime as well as, frankly, those who stand proudly as members of the MAGA cult - to see images like these. To see that tens of thousands of people showed up to protests like these, even in some foul weather in some places.

Thus, it is in that spirit that I decided that it would be a good idea to share these pictures. The first was from what I imagine was the biggest in New York City. There were video clips which showed that the march had so many people that it spanned several blocks. The first picture showed a glimpse of this, and I particularly liked the one sign (on the bottom left of the picture) which read "Fight Truth Decay."

Now that one is creative and clever.

Below are the pictures, with the links on Facebook where I obtained them from.

New York City: