General Discussion

Impressive guy, mid-thirties. I'd heard him in early April at a protest at the Texas Capitol but couldn't see the stage. But my husband and I were both impressed, and when he said he lived and was attending the university in my county, we took note. This evening he was equally impressive.

Lots of tips on how to be safe and avoid allowing the adrenaline that could spike if you are confronted with counter protesters or law enforcement. It's VERY important not to be baited into violence, and adrenaline can bring the fight-or-flight reaction that could overwhelm our intent to stay peaceful. Before you go with the strategy of sitting down, link arms in a quad of 4. Strength in numbers, added safety, starts helping bring your heart rate down. Singing nonviolent protests songs (especially if you can add a cadence to it) also helps a lot. Marshalls can still quickly find any problems and work to protect protesters if they are in quads and moving/singing in unison, which is the point of directions to sit down. You're then in a better position to protect your core. This only works if the plan is clearly communicated at the beginning. If you are in another area where the plan is to sit down, at this point I'd say that's what you should do. But leaders could re-evaluate for future occasions.

While the current online chatter from groups likely to counter-protest is apparently very low right now, even those of us in smaller communities may encounter challenging situations. He recommends developing contingency plans. What will you do if you need to get to safety? Our group thought about signs – we'd leave them behind. He suggests setting up a meeting place, and also having a backup plan.

The most sobering thing he said was that we each should do a deep reflection and evaluation on what kind of resistance we could be comfortable with? He considers that a spiritual task. Are we willing to protest in peaceful circumstances? Would we be prepared to protest if clashes with counter-protesters are likely. How about if law enforcement is likely to be exercising crowd control? If gas, flash bangs, and force, where fellow protesters or you yourself are knocked down, is that something we will risk. He said that to encourage us to make the decisions for ourselves, and consider other ways to help the resistance if we find we are not prepared for any particular level of consequences. He expects the National Guard will be in Austin before too long, and that a contingent would be likely to be sent to our smaller town. We don't expect that for this Saturday, but still, it is wise to be prepared.

He participated last week in veterans' protests at the Texas Capitol for the anniversary of D-Day and got to meet a 102-year-old veteran who fought at Guadalcanal and was there to stand up for democracy. Veterans are also organizing for future protests, to be called Freedom's Shield I think. They'll wear tee-shirts with their service branch, rank, unit, and on the back Freedom's Shield. Their intent is to protect protesters and to cause the military being used by Trump serious pause on whether to fire on their brothers in arms.