50501 Protest, Austin

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Kate's notes on the protest today here in Austin with my minor additions:

Well, something finally seems to be happening down here. We went to the "5051 Protest" (50 states, 50 protests, 1 day). It started at 11am and was supposed to continue until 4pm but we left at 1 (had to use the washroom and then we got some lunch at the nearby Texas Chili Parlor Bar while we were at it). I love a good protest and usually they feel like they might matter. But this one made me sad – even though I am glad to see it happening and we will try to support any other ways of fighting back that happen while we are here or back home. Unfortunately, we can’t stop buying American until we get home. 

A woman at the protest asked Reg if he was from Pflugerville (a north suburb of Austin) and he said no, Canada. She started in on how we should not let Canada be bullied by Trump and we should stop buying American goods – I said people were doing that. She felt terrible that the US was acting like that toward their good friend Canada, and toward Mexico too. Like many we meet she apologized for the sad state of affairs here and asked if she could move to Canada. Not the first, nor the last, to ask for asylum in our home.

But the problem is that Trump is doing his evil works so fast and so crazily that it seems impossible to fight back (see "Shock Doctrine", 2007 by Namoi Klein). While everyone is still reeling from the tariff wars, he starts talking about the US taking over Gaza and people who live there can find “nice new homes” in other countries. Just one dire thing after another.

Even though everything Trump says won’t come to pass, some of it will. Today at the protest, a trans person told the crowd that she had had her passport taken away from her. Another speaker said her parents couldn’t come to the protest because they were afraid of being picked up and deported. Just so many sad and desperate stories.

There were many interesting and meaningful signs (see the photo album above). But the one sign pretty much captured it – it read: “Too much for one sign”. One sign said “People can’t be illegal” – a good point. Here’s a good and relevant song from the first round with Trump ("Who's Going to Build Your Wall?" 2007 by Tom Russell). I think there have already been protests over immigrant raids – we should find out and support them. 

Here's a funny story. When we arrived, we perched on the ledge beside a guy probably in his 30s. Reg noticed he was wearing a pistol and asked him why he brought a gun. He said, well, if counter-protesters came, they would probably be armed and he wanted to be able to defend himself. (I didn’t bother trying to tell him about the people in the crowd who might bet hurt/killed in the crossfire). He said but if the gun made us feel uncomfortable, he could cover it – and he pulled his t-shirt down over the gun. He told us that you can do open carry or hidden carry in Texas – both are legal (which we knew). In fact, he said, you could even take a gun into the capital if you wanted (we were protesting on the steps of the capital building) – I somehow doubted that – I recalled being searched when we went on a tour there years ago. And there were plenty of armed officers at the protest to protect the capitol. Reg told him that we were from Canada and weren’t used people bringing guns. Then the really funny part. I was carrying a lawn chair in a bag in case there was nowhere to sit and he glanced at it. So I told him what it was. He said, "You’ll probably have to turn that in – they’re collecting objects like that over there." We laughed at the irony that they would take away my lawn chair (which they didn’t) but the gun was just fine. He said, "Ya, that’s Texas."

Anyway, it is good to see people fighting back and hopefully it will make a difference. But it does seem a bit bleak right now.