Greg Bales

4/4 Protest

Last week we attended the “We Are One” protest in Iowa City, partly to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. on the the 42nd anniversary of his murder and partly to stand in solidarity with public workers who are having their collective bargaining rights legislated away in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and elsewhere (but not Iowa, for now). Iowa City’s protest was a consolation for those of us who couldn’t make the trip to the main rally in Des Moines, but it wasn’t much consolation. It was an odd rally, in fact. We were told that to revive the spirit of protest in America, we needed to learn to sing again, so lyric sheets were passed out and we joined in a chorus of “We’ve got more empty homes than homeless in this land” (to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In”). The speeches were rambly messes, more antiwar fervor and disappointment with Barack Obama than anything. We were told that Martin Luther King was “one of the finest human beings who ever existed” and that we could discover in our history books that “illegal immigrants aren’t illegal—they’re human beings!” Laura, who was also in attendance and has plenty of experience organizing rallies, lamented that no one had thought to lead chants to raise the crowd’s blood pressure. In the end, the protest sort of gasped and wheezed to a conclusion, and we went to dinner.

Here are a few pictures I took.

One of the speakers. “We need a party,” he said, “that supports labor and human rights!” His pronouncements got wilder as time went on, however, and he was eventually heckled away from the mic.

These two singers—I believe their names are Gina and Greg—led the sing-a-long. They had great lyrics. Among the best: “Now we’re bombing in Lybiaqistan!”

“Invest in America, not war in Iraq.” Though still relevant, surely this sign was a leftover from protests ca. 2003–2007.

“Teachers are long-term investments.” This was the best sign at the rally. I’d probably broaden it to say people are long-term investments, but there’s nothing wrong with focusing on teachers.

However, my favorite picture had little to do with the rally itself. It was G’s first protest, but he wasn’t thrilled about it. The image is of him telling Laura how unhappy he was.