Protester on K Street
I've often seen this woman standing in Farragut Park at the corner of Connecticut and K. I talked to her a couple of days ago, but I can't remember her name. She's been protesting like this for 6 years. She was thrown at first when I tried to talk to her, but we had a nice conversation about her conviction that this war should end. She's soft spoken, cogent in her thoughts, and quite resolved to continue her quiet protest. I asked her, “Why K Street?”, to which she replied, “These are the people who run the country.”
4 comments:
I've seen that woman on several occasions too . . . the sad thing is, in post 9/11 USA, I feel that protesters and sign-toting denizens have been pushed to the "crazy" realm of society, by society. Do most passers-by ever acknowledge or absorb what these protesters are spouting? (no). And that's a shame, because as you witnessed a few days ago, many of them are indeed sane people who are challenging the (bad) status quo.
I've been wondering for a few years about standard, sign-holding protest's efficacy. However, I really love it when people like this woman and the folks across the street from the White House ("Live by the bomb, Die by the bomb) continue to stand witness over a long period of time. I think taking on the role of the deep witness is a revolutionary act in a culture that frequently wants to exist only on the surface.
i don't think the efficacy of sign holding protests is dead. i participated in a recent protest against ringling bros. circus (specifically targeting the well-documented abuses against their elephants). the change on facial expressions of some folks reading the sign i was holding told me i had planted the seed for some fundamental change.
I work above the Farragut North Metro, so I see her about two or three times a month on my walk home and always give her a thumbs up.
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