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Protest you say?

Protest You Say?

I read this and busted out laughing. Why? Because this state is deep in the red sea and anyone who questions the status quo regardless is looked upon with suspicion.

I had a nice chat with a native Tennessean who is black and said that we focus on too much of what divides us versus that which unites us and that is why the Legislative body both locally and nationally can ignore and in turn circumvent rational decisions that would benefit the status quo and instead support a select elite. Why bother when in reality few turn up to town halls, public meetings and legislative offices. Until they do.

And when they do you have seen massive change as I have said 3 million votes guaranteed are superior to 3 million dollars that does not guarantee one's re-election. Quid pro quo and all that.

So when I read this article today about the varying protests that have been the result of the Donald Trump election and the policies proposed that have led to many to hit the streets, the halls, the offices and act on the history of America that gave us this democracy in the first place.

I have elected to not participate as I trust few to none here in the Volunteer State. I have made it my business to attend transit meetings, write Senators, attend varying other permit meetings and ones about sidewalks as those are the issues that I find of import. And when I talk to people this seems to be their first time at the rodeo and it is less about the issues and more about not being alone in the deep red sea.

And the young man I spoke to I asked point blank did he vote and did his peers? He did but his friends did not. They see politics as a white issue and not something they connect with. Yes and because of that you reap what you sew. Some of my most virulent arguments/debates at public transit are with people of color as they are afraid bus fares will raise and yet when I ask few ride the bus but this is not about that and what it is about is fear of gentrification.

And when I asked this same young man about issues such as sidewalks and buses that benefit a community he said that the bus issue was voted on last year and it failed. I informed him yes that was then and this was now and did he know of NMotion the new transit plan passed and approved and in search of funding, which includes changing laws to allow County's and Cities to vote on their own infrastructure needs and in turn funding plans. He did not. Of course not. As the year that was voted on it was a different Mayor and in turn the meddling by the Koch Brothers to see if they could in fact alter local legislative bills. And why yes after a hostile campaign and divisive misinformation it was shot down. A year later the current Mayor ran on that issue and she has made it her trademark, having a free bus day and pushing for the growth of transit. He did not vote for her or knew any of this. Ah an uniformed populace is an easily manipulated populace.

Again, I want to point out that while the state of Tennessee has less than 30% of its population seeking post secondary education, it appears that the entire 33% live here in Nashville. Funny I actually meet few of said educated ones that are actually from Nashville, so they likely leave once they figure out how fucked up it is here. And yes it is mighty fucked up. But the people seem to prefer it that way. And then they don't.

So of course the local paper is horrified that people have the audacity to protest and clearly see this as again some "outside" influence, sort of like the Russians and the elections, that are causing all this conflict. Well irony is that most of the people I do meet again are not from here and NONE of them are partaking in any of this and why? We are working for a shitty wages and don't have the time or inclination to do so. BTW the transit meetings,etc are often held in the evenings so I can go. I would not waste my days off to sit in the capital building with any of the natives as I truly do not like them. And while I agree with the idea that any port in the storm and strange bedfellows, I meet enough in my day gig that no, not in my off hours.

So will this last? I have no clue but I am glad someone is.




What's behind the rise in protesters in Tennessee

Kirk A. Bado , USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee Published March 21, 2017 |

They came in threes and fours, carpooling or splitting an Uber to Gov. Bill Haslam's State of the State address in January. Hundreds of demonstrators filled the halls, bearing signs, donning pink knit hats and shouting chants. Officers of the Tennessee Highway Patrol stood on the fringes maintaining order.

“Why are all these people here?” a visibly confused Rep. John Mark Windle asked a group of officers guarding the door to the House chamber.

The hundreds of demonstrators who descended on the state Capitol were here for myriad issues.

Ask 10 different protesters and you are bound to get 10 different answers. Some were demonstrating against President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on immigration, some wore the knitted pink hats of the Women’s March, others demanded the revival of the failed Insure Tennessee from Haslam to expand health insurance access to low-income Tennesseans.

Yet they all rallied around the loose theme of “We are Watching” to remind lawmakers they will hold them to extra scrutiny.

This would be the first of weekly demonstrations coined “Moral Mondays” after similar protests in North Carolina. The opening weeks of the 110th General Assembly have been marked with a sharp rise in protesters taking their concerns directly to their representatives.

"I am heartened and thankful that people of all political persuasions are coming together and saying, 'This isn't America. This isn't traditional Democrat or Republican," said Bernie Ellis, 67, of Fly, Tenn. protesting outside of the State of the State address.

“We just cannot be quiet."

The State of the State protest is part of a larger national wave of activism seemingly inspired in part by Trump’s election in November. At least half a million people took to the streets in Washington D.C. for the Women’s March in January, with 15,000 Nashvillians joining in a sister march from Cumberland Park to Public Square.

The new zeal for activism is evident at all levels of Tennessee government.

Two state lawmakers were run out of their own news conference promoting bills that would define marriage as only between one man and one woman and a bill requiring students in public schools to use the bathroom assigned to the sex on their birth certificate in early February. Nashvillians angry over a Metro police officer's fatal shooting of Jocques Clemmons, a 31-year-old black man, brought a Metro council meeting to a dramatic halt as they demanded more dynamic action from the city.

Demonstrators temporarily halted a Nashville council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. The demonstrators demanded the city take action in the aftermath of the shooting death of Jocques Clemmons by a Nashville police officer. Jessica Bliss / The Tennessean

And an alternative town hall was formed by activists outside a town hall U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn held at the Fairview City Hall, which had a limited capacity of 130 people.

But nowhere is it more prominent and consistent than in the halls of the Tennessee General Assembly. Residents have taken to the statehouse in some degree at least every week since the 110th General Assembly convened in January.

Caleb Banks, 25, of Spring Hill, has been to almost 20 demonstrations since January and plans to organize many more before the session is expected to end in April. He says the power of these demonstrations come from their independence from any one party and a previously politically inactive constituency finally paying attention.

“A lot of people who were never involved before are getting involved now. And I think that’s where the shock and awe is coming from Republicans,” Banks said, “They haven’t seen anything like this since they’ve been in office."

Protesters are nothing new to the Tennessee General Assembly. During the 2002 legislative session, anti-income tax protesters descended on the Capitol, and at one point punched a Tennessean editor, confusing him for a lawmaker. The last two legislative sessions have seen demonstrators demanding lawmakers pass Insure Tennessee. In 2012, "Occupy Nashville" protesters were forcibly removed from Legislative Plaza after camping out for months in solidarity of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.

But unlike previous flares of activism, there does not seem to be one unifying rallying cry for these new liberal demonstrators. While the demonstrators have loosely organized under the theme of “We are Watching,” the frequent demonstrators at the Capitol are not championing one mandate.

Comparisons have been drawn between today’s more liberal activists and the more conservative Tea Party movement that sprang up in 2009 in the wake of President Barack Obama’s victory and his push for the Affordable Care Act. Republicans took full advantage of their newly excited base to gain seats on the state and federal levels across the nation. Republicans have controlled both chambers in Tennessee since 2010.

The demonstrations aren't all for liberal causes, though.

Former conservative talk radio host Steve Gill has led several successful grassroots insurgencies at the statehouse, and recently helped organize conservative protests against Haslam’s proposed gas tax. He says that the most efficient protests are focused on a single issue and attract the most eyeballs, so he had one of the demonstrators show up to a committee meeting in a giant red foam gas can costume to draw attention.

“You gotta give the media guys crack cocaine for their eyeballs,” he said.

Gill’s demonstrators have a little more of a receptive audience than the more liberal groups at the Capitol. Certain protest groups have been met with disdain by Republicans in the statehouse. Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta, drew ire from demonstrators after he tweeted that several protesters at the State of the State were paid. He declined to provide evidence to support his claim, and nearly 150 protesters shouted “We pay you!” into the Senate chamber in response to his allegations.

But no lawmaker has been more of focal point then Sen. Mae Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet. After being run out of her own news conference by demonstrators against her controversial “Natural Marriage” bill, Beavers called for stricter security at the Capitol and that anyone disrupting the legislative process should be imprisoned.

In the ensuing weeks, Beavers has hired personal security to guard her office from protesters.

Beavers did not respond to multiple calls by the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee for comment.

On the other hand, Democratic lawmakers have embraced the zeal of the protesters and hope to spin it into electoral success. With Republicans firmly controlling a super-majority in both the House and Senate, this will be an uphill battle. Some Democratic lawmakers have held impromptu meet and greets with citizens in between chants during protests. Rep. Bo Mitchell, has taken to wearing a “We Are Watching” button on the House floor in solidarity with the demonstrators.

“I’m very excited about it because it’s citizens coming up to watch their employees,” he said.

But Democrats are struggling to bridge the gap between these self-organizing groups and the party. Bernie Ellis, one of the organizers of the Blackburn alternative town hall, posted a message to supporters on Facebook before the event expressing how surprised he was that the Williamson County Democrats had not heard about them yet.

“I just left a meeting of the Williamson County Democrats. Amazingly, more than half the folks in attendance had not yet heard of our ‘alternative’ town hall, but most now plan to attend,” the post read.

Gill contends that the liberal activists are failing to resonate with lawmakers because they do not reflect the views of most Tennesseans. In 2016, Trump won every county in the state except for three and carried the state with 61.1 percent of the vote.

“What the liberals struggling with is that they are trying to change people’s mind and create outrage against what Tennesseans think,” Gill said.

Now the Democrats are trying to reverse their losing trend and have begun taking more active measures to sustain the momentum. State legislators are holding open town halls every Thursday to connect directly with demonstrators. But there is a gap between the independent organizers and established power. Lack of focusing on a specific agenda item might be the root cause.

“This is grassroot organizing, and there a lot people who don’t have a whole lot of experience,” Banks said.

Although, the new activists demonstrate for more liberal causes, they do not identify with any party and say they plan to hold all elected officials accountable when elections role around in 2018.

“Most of these organizers don’t organize with either party,” Banks said, “These grassroots organizers are trying to hold every politician accountable.”

But that might be one of their downfalls, according to Gill. Unless they can rally around one pointed issue, they will continue to be written off, he said.

“A lot of the liberal protesters are all over the map. They hate everything," he said. "That’s not really an effective public policy debate."

Time will tell whether activists will be able to maintain their presence at the Capitol and turn it into action. Although crowds were thinner the first week of March, demonstrators who are there still have the same intensity as those first arriving back in January.

They still line the hall between the two chambers in the State Capitol, creating a canyon of DIY signs and knit hats for legislators to traverse from the elevator to their desks. It’s loud, and the high vaulted ceilings in the statehouse make for a loud echo.

Sherri Beal, 56, of Nashville, stood behind the velvet ropes wearing a pink knit hat on her head and waving an American flag.

Like others gathered here, she’s not present for any one reason. Others around her held up signs calling for a Medicare expansion, gun restrictions and an end to outsourcing ot state services. She does not like Trump’s stance on immigration and thinks that LGBT residents need more protection.

Yet her whole reason for being here, and those gathered around her, could be condensed into one simple mandate.

“Just listen to us," she said, "Please treat us with respect.”


This post first appeared on Green Goddess VV, please read the originial post: here

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