As longtime community organizers, we are frequently asked why we bother to keep organizing protests, and why should people bother attending. “Standing on a corner for two hours with a clever sign, especially in a blue area, means nothing. This isn’t doing a thing to create change!” We wholeheartedly beg to differ.
After planning six events so far in 2025 (and dozens more over the last eight+ years), we would like to share our observations on why protests matter, and why we spend the energy designing successful, and often historic, events. How are they historic? We haven’t seen one so large on the Peninsula since the Vietnam War, but this one was also the first human protest line that activated multiple communities along a significant length of El Camino Real. And let us say why you should come out and be in community with us.
First of all, we gently counter that a show of strength, especially in our “blue” area, matters tremendously. A single protest may not move policy needles immediately or create change tomorrow, but it sends a signal that we, those who are worried about the overreaching actions of the current administration, are here in large numbers, motivated, energized and not afraid to stand up for our beliefs. There are more of us than there are of the players in power who create authoritarian policies and threaten our democracy. Hard stop. It also tells our elected officials, who are generally aligned with our mission, that we support their efforts to protect our values, and that we will demand they continue to fight with us in defending our democracy. Building this mutual relationship with electeds is fundamental to playing an active, ongoing role in our democracy.
We could stop there and say we’ve justified protesting, but we have learned something else that makes the point of protesting all the more poignant to us, and to the increasing numbers of attendees at our event. We are honored to find out that people joining us attended their first protest ever, from young children to people in their 90s. What brings them to act, and inspires our efforts, building community by coming out together. Meeting people and making friends. Knowing you are not alone in acting, or in how you think or feel. Spending time talking, laughing, singing, cheering, sharing future actions, making plans to work together, and getting reenergized for the day-to-day grind. Our protests bring joy to attendees, while building a long-term, sustainable community, so vitally important in our increasingly screen-obsessed, post-COVID isolated, politically-divided nation.
After our historic, 20,000-person strong June 14 No Kings event that stretched 7 miles on El Camino Real from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale, countless people have come up to us confirming that building community mattered, but most importantly, along with fellowship, friendship and energy, being together brought back hope. As long as we have hope for a better tomorrow, we will persist, for the better of all of us, and the success of America. We are aware of how hard it is to keep up optimism, and to keep fighting for what we believe in, but we encourage you to keep on going, find community and find hope in the ongoing efforts of people and organizations supporting our democracy. Justice is always a long, and continual, path, and democracy is much like a garden that always needs tending. Our goal as organizers is to help and support you on this long, but beautiful, path to a better future.
Join us on Labor Day, Sept. 1, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., as we make history, again. Growing upon our 7 mile success, we are hosting a 17 mile rally in place, from Redwood City to Santa Clara, connecting at least 17,000 protesters in a single file line on El Camino Real through Redwood City, Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. The 17x17k event is part of the thousands of #SolidaritySeptember and #WorkersOverBillionaires rallies across the country planned for Labor Day. Learn more and sign up at tinyurl.com/historic17x17k.
IdaRose Sylvester is a community entrepreneur and serves on the Mountain View Human Relations Commission, and is a board member of both the Community Services Agency and Mountain View Historical Association. Sally Lieber is a former member of the California Assembly. She currently represents taxpayers in 19 California counties on the State Board of Equalization and has served on California’s three-member Franchise Tax Board.
(5) comments
These women remind me of a child throwing a tantrum when most bystanders cast a sympathetic eye on the kid and wonder why it is screaming. Contrary to their fears, we do live in a free country, so let them be, even though it is an exercise in futility.
right. we are a tantrumocracy.
The Vietnam war protests had concrete goals: ending US involvement in a foreign conflict and getting US troops home. I read this piece twice and still could not figure out what exactly these groups are protesting for. What actual policies are you looking to implement? "Authoritarian policies that threaten our democracy" is just vague left-wing jargon.
Enjoy your street party though!
Thanks, Ms. Sylvester and Ms. Lieber, for notification of the next performative outrage event on September 1 that isn’t doing a thing to create change. Except maybe in increasing the partisan divide. As long as the protest remains peaceful (and paid protesters aren’t in attendance) and doesn’t inconvenience others, folks can go for it. Although I’m unsure what they’re protesting. We haven’t had kings for almost 250 years and if our (yes, our) great President Trump wanted to be king he would have done it the first time. Other than a confusing event name, I’d recommend everyone attending please patronize local shops as often as they can to help our local economy. As for me, I’ll do something more meaningful – watch paint dry. Meanwhile, Trump continues to Make America Great Again with his policies doubted by the left. As usual, Trump was right about everything. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Hard stop.
I see how you are patting yourselves on the back for organizing protests, and how you feel it "brings the community together". But you fail to see, or realize, that what you are doing is furthering the rift in our society. The drumbeat of "fascism" and "Nazi" in describing our President and his administration has consequences. First, I have shocking news to break to you, but the mainstream media and the Left cannot for the life of them tell the truth about virtually anything that they are doing. So many times the protests turn out to be based on lies and exaggerations. Take the "Maryland man" as an example. Or that "United States citizens are being deported." Or that "Trump is a puppet of Putin". These are kindergarten-grade hoaxes and lies that continue to be repeated. They all serve to divide us, when by and large, we are not that far apart. Crime and violence are bad? Yes, we can all agree. A wide open border? No, no one wants that. Fair trade? Yes, that's a good thing. Yet the mainstream media/left warp these topics into dividing concepts. And the brainwashing works so well that you have average citizens standing on overpasses with signs saying, "Stop the genocide in Gaza", like useful idiots who really know nothing about that 2000 year old conflict. And then you get the mentally unstable who climb on a roof and try to kill our President, or you get a deranged trans male who murders children in a church thinking he is doing something heroic. Those are the consequences of the mainstream media lies, and your glorious protests.
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