We will not be hosting a protest this Saturday, but if you feel the need to get out there- do it. Keep in mind that there is a heatwave and humidity is “high” for the desert- so there may be some rain.

We will have important information to share when we return and will be organizing a debrief, stay tuned.

Next protest in Ridgecrest will be 9/6. If you would like to join a Labor Day protest, our neighbors in Tehachapi are hosting a “Workers over Billionaires” event from 5-7pm at Tehachapi Blvd & Tucker Rd.

Survey

Please participate in our short survey so we can plan events for September and October.

National Protests

There has been some concern over participation in National Protests. There are a lot of national political organizations/clubs and unions out there hosting campaigns to mobilize on a national level, but these are not the same as “Hands Off” and “No Kings” events. The mass protests were multi-organizational groups that came together for planning and they were advertised for at least a month in advance before happening. No Kings was a group in Colorado who worked with leadership at Indivisible to build a coalition with many groups. When this happens, you will see on Indivisible’s website to “Host” or “Join” the event. Indivisible is in the works of doing another mass protest. But they are not ready to announce it. You can watch “What’s the Plan?” on Indivisible’s YouTube to get some background. Until then, we will stick to our mission for Ridgecrest.

I did not host a “Rage Against the Regime” because it seemed like a poor marketing strategy. It’s outside the 50501 brand and mission statement. Although, I do agree that anger can be used to gain motivation to do something positive, the theme does not fit our town. When we got started in February, people would ask my husband, “who is organizing the protests?” He’d say, “my wife and she’s pissed.” People responded with, “we’re pissed too.” Initially I thought this was going to be our battle cry- but the marketing fell flat. I even got some glares from people who also supported my efforts. People in our town don’t want things that are too “in your face.” The optics of “rage” were counter productive to our town and mission swing votes in our district. We’ve built a relationship with the city, trust with the police, and a majority of motorists support us. We’ve made progress, let’s stick to strategies that work for Ridgecrest.

Bakersfield Recap

At the protest last Friday outside Fong’s office, we had our exchange with Fong’s aides, talked with a journalist, and were approached by 2 young realtors who wanted to learn more about our position.

This was our second trip to Fong’s office. On our first trip, we were met by a couple of police officers who were tipped off that there would be a protest. The officers were very respectful and were curious what we were about. After hearing we came all the way from Ridgecrest and our frustrations, the police escorted an aide out to talk to us. Fong’s office probably called the police on me, but the police worked with me instead. Absolutely hilarious. I contacted same officer last week to see if he would moderate for us again. He said he would, and told me that Fong’s Office had already called the police department to inform them of another protest. We were a dozen people last time. Why is his office so scared of us?

This time, Fong sent 2 aides to talk to us. They started by saying that they don’t have any prepared approved statements, so they would listen but couldn’t comment. This was less productive than last time, but maybe the other aide got in trouble for what she said to me because I did write him another letter about it. They took our marked-up letters and gave us clipboards with forms to make additional comments. The aides came back out at noon to collect everything and told me that they would scan the comments to send to Washington. But why? Rep. Fong is supposed to be in his district working. I teased that he’s on a 5 week vacation and they very quickly assured me that he was here working… but also didn’t know where.

The best part of the trip was the conversation we had with 2 young realtors who worked in the office complex. There was a little misunderstanding over my Manzanar sign and it prompted one of them to ask questions. Unfortunately, there was a protester who was missing the point and started yelling at them. His actions were short lived and accomplished nothing in the exchange of information. People don’t learn history by being yelled at. After the protester let off steam and walked away, myself and Yevette (from TMDC) continued our conversation with the two men. It gave us the opportunity to inform them about the proposed ICE facility in Cal-City, how ICE is treating people, the fact ICE has a quota to fill, and a short history about the Japanese internment camp. They even agreed on some of our points, said that they enjoyed talking with us, but didn’t like the other guy who jumped into our conversation. We need to be approachable so people can ask questions and learn. Those are the golden moments we are out there for. When someone reads a sign and it causes them to take pause and think about it- the protesting is working.