Protests

I’m living in Spain at the moment and I went to a protest on Tuesday night that I didn’t give a shit about. Normally I love protests, but I couldn’t have cared less about this one.

Here is what we were protesting: In Valencia, Spain, governmental budget cuts forced a high school to shut down the heat, lights, water, and electricity. When the students and teachers held a protest, the police responded violently. I realize that anyone who cares about education (and I certainly do) should care about this. It just seemed such a miniscule problem to protest about, and my mind was on the fear I have for what’s happening in the US with reproductive rights.

So on Tuesday night, in Lugo, Spain, on the opposite side of the country, a bunch of people cleared the playing children from the gazebo in the center of the main plaza, climbed in, made a speech denouncing the events in Valencia, and proceeded to make a buttload of noise. The noise started with the clapping after the speech and elevated banging pots, yelling, and blowing shrill-as-hell whistles.

I didn’t want to be there. I went because a friend of a friend helped organize it, and I ended up leaving the gazebo early because my ears couldn’t stand it anymore. I didn’t care if a bunch of shitty high school kids who were probably enjoying the break from the usual didn’t have electricity.

But at the same time, I am amazed and inspired by what I saw. These people cared. They cared so much about something so simple and so far away from them that they climbed into the gazebo, then marched around the plaza and onto the outdoor stage where a concert was being held, shouting and whistling and banging pots to make people aware that there was something unjust happening.

And there were nationwide protests over the Valencia incident; there were a thousand people at the protests in larger cities, such as Alicante and Castellon, and they are still protesting in Valencia:

And there were many other protests in lesser-known, farty little Spanish cities like Lugo. There may have been only 50 of us, but we made a hell of a lot of noise.

And in the US, we’ve got enormous threats looming over us with the reproductive rights restrictions that are happening all over the country that are getting closer and more real. I’m not saying we haven’t done anything—the people who lined up outside the Virginia capitol probably changed the direction of the transvaginal ultrasound bill. I’m just saying: what if people in the US joined together and stood in the way of the approaching Goliath that seeks to eradicate our freedoms? What if we in the US took a page from the European book and turned our anger and fear into unifying energy? What if we mounted nationwide protests against these human rights violations? What then?