Like, yeah.
One-time Sweetheart of the Doc Martens and Slogan-Sticker-Festooned-MC-Jacket Wearing Set, Peter Staley sums up some of my thoughts regarding the recent wave of Post-Prop 8 Activism pretty nicely.
Long did we agonize back in the day about up-coming demos: what look would our graphics have? What were our demands? What chants would we use? Who would lead the chants? What was our strategy? Would there be civil disobedience? Who would marshall the demonstration? Did we have legal observers?
The absolute worst thing that can happen is for passerby to comment, "I guess those people are angry about something" and move on. You want to move those passersby to come on over to your side. Think of the graphics for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike: simple, direct, poignant.
And unfortunately, protests here in Palm Springs have been marred by an assault on a pro-Prop 8 woman carrying a pretty pathetic looking styrofoam cross. Ever'body needs to read Ghandi's On Non-Violence and King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail pronto. To sum it up: we need to be better people than them.
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3 comments:
Darling, I love you, but it's impossible to read either your or Peter Staley's posts without hearing massive condescension. And that is the absolute worst tone for a young queer person to hear. I (and they) will immediately dismiss everything you both have to say about the matter because of it.
We did an amazing thing. 15,000 people in one place doing the same thing in NYC? That's a monumental achievement.
Suggestions for ways to improve are, of course, always welcome. Relative judgments with the past--well, they're just pointless and irritating.
Amen!
San Diego did a pretty good job. Our march was HUGE.
But I think the very most important thing is to talk to your friends who are otherwise good people but voted for Prop 8. These people are likely convinceable if we aren't asses to them.
We don't need everybody to agree with us. Just about 2% more people. That isn't a crazy goal.
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