Indivisibles cause some “Good Trouble”
Over 200 Indivisibles attended the “Democracy by the Dozen” event on July 17th to honor the late civil rights leader John Lewis. Protestors were out at 1,500 “Good Trouble” registered events nationwide in the US on July 17th and 19th.
The idea for a different kind of protest came from some out-of-the-box thinking by our Mobilization committee. There were lots of challenges just due to the calendar: not only did the 17th fall on a workday, organizers knew summertime temperatures would be a problem.
So the committee came up with the idea of putting a dozen protestors on multiple intersections for two shifts that day during the morning and evening commute. “We just couldn’t have people standing around for two hours in mid-July heat,” said Steering Committee Chair Scott Dolquist.
The event was our first organized through Mobilize, a program designed to make it easier for event organizers to communicate with and update registered attendees. The program also made it possible for participants “staffing” the same intersections to virtually meet each other prior to the event in a way that protected everyone’s privacy (first name last initial only, and users communicate without sharing their emails).
Setting up over a dozen intersections in Mobilize was quite the feat even for our IT whiz Kay Pexa, who also deserves accolades for answering hundreds of emails prior to the event and juggling attendees when we added intersections at the last minute. We wound up covering 14 intersections along Nob Hill and 40th Avenue in the morning, and 11 intersections on that route in the evening.
Even though both shifts were only an hour, afternoon shift Indivisibles sprayed themselves with water in 95 degree temperatures and lined up at local coffee stands (one of which handed out free iced drinks to the participants at a Nob Hill intersection).
KIMA news covered the event, and Yakima resident Daniel Padilla was interviewed on the corner of Nob Hill and 16th. “We see all this chaos that’s going on around the country,” Padilla said, “But this is where we can really act.”
