Protesting in Minnesota Means Cold Toes
Dec. 8th, 2017 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseLast night was the big Team Internet "Save Net Neutrality" rally across the nation. Here in Saint Paul, a small group of us met outside of a Verizon store on Hamline and University at 5:00 pm. I guess there was one over in Minneapolis, and I know there was one much earlier in the day in Apple Valley. Net Neutrality is one of Mason's issues, so he came along. The organizer did a great job. She and her partner filed for a protest permit from the city and discussed with the police ahead of time where we'd be allowed to stand (since Verizon's store and parking lot are private property.) There were fliers to pass out to passers-by, extra signs for those of use struggling to be pithy about a hard-to-conceptualize issue, etc.
They expected 100 or so people. I'm not sure all of them came out, however. I'm terrible at crowd-size, but I'm getting better at guesstimating thanks to attending a lot of these sorts of things and I would have figured 50-75? When Mason and I first arrived, we thought it might be a wash. We were there five minutes before things were supposed to start and there were no more than a half-dozen people. The organizers had brought coffee and hot chocolate, though, which made me happy. As Mason said, "Join the Revolution, we have hot coffee!" I have no idea what the temperature was, but it's been in the 20s F / -6.6 C in the sun, and the sun already setting by 5:00 so I would bet the temperature was dropping rapidly. That could account some for the poor turn out. But, it was also at a tough time. 5 pm. Some people are only just getting off work at 5. I did notice that the crowd got larger the longer we stood there. We even had random people joining us as they got off the light rail.
Mason's toes got cold pretty quickly. As a veteran of Minnesota winter protests, I had suggested he bundle up, but I apparently failed to teach him my double-socks (plus long underwear) trick for keeping the legs and toes warm. He now knows for next time, because, of course there will be a next time. But, so we didn't stay more than 45 minutes? Mason gave up to go warm his toes before me, but it was a school night, so I didn't stay much longer after he bailed for the car.
But we were there long enough to appear on Channel 5's news. I'm right behind the guy being interviewed near the end of this clip, Josh, (you can only see my sign), and you can see Mason's red-coated arm waving a sign. The organizer sent us a link to it: http://kstp.com/news/net-neutrality-protests-minnesota/4699389/.
One woman came with a homemade sign that read: "Al Franken supports Net Neutrality." When she first showed us the sign, a number of people groaned because... uh, talk about a tough sell right now. (My thoughts on Al are complicated, as I think are a lot of Minnesotan's, so... YEAH.) But, hey, free speech. And we were all there for the same cause.
I really don't know if any of this makes any difference, but the protests did do what they were supposed to do: we got attention for the cause. These days, you have to take whatever small victories you can.
They expected 100 or so people. I'm not sure all of them came out, however. I'm terrible at crowd-size, but I'm getting better at guesstimating thanks to attending a lot of these sorts of things and I would have figured 50-75? When Mason and I first arrived, we thought it might be a wash. We were there five minutes before things were supposed to start and there were no more than a half-dozen people. The organizers had brought coffee and hot chocolate, though, which made me happy. As Mason said, "Join the Revolution, we have hot coffee!" I have no idea what the temperature was, but it's been in the 20s F / -6.6 C in the sun, and the sun already setting by 5:00 so I would bet the temperature was dropping rapidly. That could account some for the poor turn out. But, it was also at a tough time. 5 pm. Some people are only just getting off work at 5. I did notice that the crowd got larger the longer we stood there. We even had random people joining us as they got off the light rail.
Mason's toes got cold pretty quickly. As a veteran of Minnesota winter protests, I had suggested he bundle up, but I apparently failed to teach him my double-socks (plus long underwear) trick for keeping the legs and toes warm. He now knows for next time, because, of course there will be a next time. But, so we didn't stay more than 45 minutes? Mason gave up to go warm his toes before me, but it was a school night, so I didn't stay much longer after he bailed for the car.
But we were there long enough to appear on Channel 5's news. I'm right behind the guy being interviewed near the end of this clip, Josh, (you can only see my sign), and you can see Mason's red-coated arm waving a sign. The organizer sent us a link to it: http://kstp.com/news/net-neutrality-protests-minnesota/4699389/.
One woman came with a homemade sign that read: "Al Franken supports Net Neutrality." When she first showed us the sign, a number of people groaned because... uh, talk about a tough sell right now. (My thoughts on Al are complicated, as I think are a lot of Minnesotan's, so... YEAH.) But, hey, free speech. And we were all there for the same cause.
I really don't know if any of this makes any difference, but the protests did do what they were supposed to do: we got attention for the cause. These days, you have to take whatever small victories you can.
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