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Douglas Coffin works and protests in Belfast.
Standing on a corner holding a sign.
That’s what I do, noon to 12:30, Monday through Friday unless I am working out of town. There are usually around eight of us, more or less, in front of the Belfast Post Office from noon to 1 p.m., every day, weekends, too, holding signs.
Long ago, I didn’t protest the Vietnam War very much, but I am standing up in this one.
Sometimes I am the first to arrive and that’s a bit lonely, but, curiously, that accentuates why I am standing there. As with anything, the more you do it the more you understand why you do it. Others trickle in, most are regulars, some come and go. We were 30 strong for two or three days after the killing by ICE in Biddeford. It is comforting to stand with others who are as outraged as I am at what the Republican Party is enabling President Donald Trump to dismantle.
Everyone usually makes their own signs. Before we invaded Iran, mine said: “No War!” With the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good: “The Republican Party is ICE.” Lately: “Rise up for America. Act! Vote!”
Some of us wave and try to connect with drivers. I don’t because I consider a car to be a private space. My sign says it all and drivers can read it. My interest is to urge them to inform themselves and think, not to interact with me.
If the car honks, I’ll raise my sign a little in a thank you. Sometimes the motion of a wave or a thumbs up will catch my eye and I’ll do the same, but I don’t look for that. Sometimes I get the finger or a thumbs down and I acknowledge those, too. A thumbs down is a simple difference of opinion. The middle finger is a little dirty.
Once a guy slowed way down, dropped his window and almost jeered “who should I vote for?” That was easy: “Vote for whoever you want to!” That is about the shortest definition of a democracy.
The smaller the car, the more it seems to honk. Large black trucks honk the least and sometimes accelerate loudly, kind of an oral thumbs down. One passenger, a tiny old woman, glided slowly by and used her left hand to steady her right hand as she slowly raised her bony middle finger. A guy in a big black truck stopped to help an awkward configuration of snarled cars cross in front of him and then gave us the finger as he passed.
Nobody is completely bad. Nobody is completely good, either. One guy in a big red truck, smiled broadly raising his hat that read TRUMP. Ya’ gotta’ like that guy. He was just doing what we were. Many who walk by thank us for being there. Some don’t.
If someone gives us a thumbs down, that probably doesn’t mean that they are actually in favor of corruption, of looting and insider trading. They probably don’t really celebrate our government as it abducts, imprisons or kills legal residents or separates kids from their parents. They probably enjoy the benefits of science, of regulation and our national parks! But, as with every belief system, the details, if examined too closely, cause the forward sweep of self-righteous indignation to stumble.
There are many who are appalled by what Republicans are doing to our country, but it will take real courage for them to vote against their own party to stop it. They may just sit on their hands.
If you see us on the corner, you are reminded that there are deep, troubling assaults on the America that all kinds of people have built over the last 250 years, both carefully and by trial and error. Also that common norms of respect, kindness and decency have been smothered by lies, hatred and misinformation. What to do?
Stand on a corner and hold a sign. Just like a vote, every corner counts.