{"id":291335,"date":"2017-01-23T18:55:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T17:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/so-what-am-i-doing-here-reflections-on-the-inauguration-day-protests\/"},"modified":"2017-01-23T18:55:01","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T17:55:01","slug":"so-what-am-i-doing-here-reflections-on-the-inauguration-day-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/so-what-am-i-doing-here-reflections-on-the-inauguration-day-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"So What am I Doing Here? Reflections on the Inauguration Day Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"IMG_20170120_121415768\"<\/p>\n

As I write this I\u2019m sitting at an Airbnb in Alexandria overlooking the Washington monument and the Capitol. The capital is now covered in fog.<\/p>\n

Protests are heating up<\/a>, with arrests and tear gas.<\/p>\n

Earlier today, I was part of a human chain, blocking entrance to the parade route, at 10th<\/sup>\u00a0and E. Several Trump supporters attempted to break the blockade; a few of them succeeded. Some called upon the police \u2013 at least two dozen, DC city cops to secret services. One group of over a dozen veterans, all white, most in their 60s, hurled racial and homophobic slurs as police escorted them in.<\/p>\n

A particularly aggressive group \u2013 all white, most in their 50s or above \u2013 were all wearing some reference to the \u201cdeplorables<\/a>,\u201d including a \u201cDeplorable Me\u201d in the style of the movie \u201cDespicable Me.\u201d One had an oversized Uncle Sam hat and long white ZZ top beard, another a Minnesota Vikings cap. They attempted to incite the crowd to violence. Older than most in the human chain \u2013 apparently there to protect four late 20s women chained to one another on lock down \u2013 I intervened, trying to deescalate, stretching my Quaker pacifism to the maximum. They backed down.<\/p>\n

But they eventually snaked around and entered the parade route, a half block away. This is an instance of tactics overshadowing strategy. And in the language of\u00a0Midwest Academy community organizing<\/a>, it was becoming less and less clear about who was the \u201ctarget\u201d.<\/p>\n

It got\u00a0curiouser\u00a0and\u00a0curiouser. Several…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I write this I\u2019m sitting at an Airbnb in Alexandria overlooking the Washington monument and the Capitol. The capital is now covered in fog. Protests are heating up, with arrests and tear gas. Earlier today, I was part of a human chain, blocking entrance to the parade route, at 10th\u00a0and E. Several Trump supporters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-291335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}