I live in South Brooklyn, Bay Ridge Neighborhood represented by GOP member Nicole Malliotakis. This is a purple district that has a conservative leaning population aided by Staten Island gerrymandering. Where I protested is also not her main office because that office is on Staten Island too far away for me to conveniently travel without a car, not to mention a $13 charge to cross the bridge to the island.
The office location is on a commercial avenue surrounded by businesses topped by residential units. There was steady foot traffic and with the morning commercial drop offs there was a good number of people to hear my protests.
Occasionally, perhaps every 10 minutes from the start of my protest, the car’s alarm parked closest to the office would erupt for about 5 minutes, a suspicious action I could only assume was to deter my protest and drown out my voice. I used this opportunity to demonize the Party for not allowing different view points or dissent.
The worst I received was angry individuals that said I should “go get a job” or “democrats started it first”. One objector broke out singing “America the Beautiful”, which I joined in, to which he said I don’t actually love America and to thank God for the Republican Party. Though these words are hard to hear, I kept a level head and mostly ignored the off-hand comments:
One older man on a bike stopped and thanked me for taking the time to do this. Another, a Clove-smoking store owner gave me some looks after which I politely confronted him and asked if my yelling was bothering him, he said no and he supports my free speech but doesn’t want to personally get involved with politics.
I gave myself breaks, like a marathon I was checking the time to see how long each of my sermons went and for how long I was taking a water break. The silence between sermons felt awkward to me, for the people that walked by and didn’t hear me speak I felt like I missed out on an opportunity. Once I hit the 2 hour mark, I felt exhausted, proud, but yet not completely fulfilled yet.
For the future, I think having something distributable for the people that stop and thank me so they can stay connected with my protest. I also realize how hard to fill the hours with stuff to stay so I think I will need to rotate some themes better and have more people to join when I get tired!
You got a venmo or something I can send you some bucks for gatorade?
Same here, I'll chip in.
Great job getting out there and using what you have to change hearts and minds. I would like to offer you my support, feel free to reach out if you need someone to talk to (on a more privacy focused platform of course) or any resources I may have access to, I am not any kind of expert but I know some stuff that may be useful for the kind of work you are doing. Whatever you decide, keep up the good work and being the change.
Same offer applies to anyone who is coming to the table with a desire to make positive change and a willingness to communicate in good faith. Please feel free to reach out.
Can't you record one of your sermons and then play it back through a speaker when you're taking a break? That way people will still hear something even if your not speaking it live?
Hell yeah, keep being you.
Also when did "but he started it" become a viable response to justify overthrowing democracy?
The Republicans live in an alternate universe… I get angry just imaging the dialogue you have to endure.
A suggestion, if others agree it might work, would be to use multiple boards. The main one with big fonts and catchy slogans to attract attention. And add one with easily proved broken electoral promises that screwed over his voters already.
Also, I'd say to be prepared to give examples that need no deep explanations and/or where to find out for themselves. Leading people into researching on their own should work better than explaining it to them directly?
Anyway, good luck and remember to care for yourself.
Thank you for doing this
it's tough to fill the time. consider bringing a small speaker, maybe make a playlist that'll give you some mental energy and/or contribute to your mood, but also might bump up your message. songs by Dylan, Bragg, even Marley have encouraging messages. you could even do southern gospel songs like the ones that black activists sang during the civil rights movement.
If you're looking for passages to fill some time, you have an excellent source right in front of your sign. Zinn should be required reading.
Thank you for your efforts. ✊
