In Defense of Joyful Protest:In a city where feds tear gas little kids, a street party helps clear the air of oppression

[Amaryllis]

https://www.contrariannews.org/p/in-defense-of-joyful-protest

(There are some great video clips here.)

For No Kings 3, Portland put on a day of resistance that felt less like a demonstration and more like a party — an anti-fascist Mardi Gras by the Willamette River.

Residents turned out with a superabundance of creativity that included marching with massive marionettes that lampooned Donald Trump and administration toadies like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Stephen Miller.

There was music everywhere — from brass bands and drumlines to folk singers and funk tunes blasted from speakers on Radio Flyer wagons. People donned inflatable costumes, frog hats, and elaborate papier-mâché ensembles. These protesters dressed up to send a message of defiance to the Trump administration, and an even stronger message to one another: the city is not afraid. And the highest expression of freedom is fierce, unruly joy.

Portland has long been Donald Trump’s punching bag. The abuse of this liberal outpost in the Pacific Northwest goes back to 2020, near the end of Trump’s first term, when he mounted a violent federal invasion that beta-tested the worst of his authoritarian impulses, including deploying irregularly uniformed federal agents to the streets and snatching protesters into unmarked vans.

[gopiscrap]

1. I was there

it was wonderful...people just kept on purring into the park. I was part of the first march from the convention center to the Riverfront Park. The weather cooperated wonderfully.

[usonian]

2. A main goal of a tyrant is to take away your joy.

Because they have none in them. Only greed, hate and lies.

"The bigger the stick, the smaller their ..."



heart.