The ship of state is sinking. Why we ordered a flag to carry at the next protest. By Hal M. Brown and Ann Rutz

We went to a protest yesterday and carried a homemade sign with a quote from Justice Sonia Sotomayer. At the previous protest we had “No King!” signs.

Today this was the main page of HuffPost:

As you see, they decided to illustrate their two main front page stories with a photo of an American flag flying upside down.

By now everyone knows that flying an upside down flag is a symbol of distress. Below is the wesbite of American Flags.

Their article begins:

Typically, an upside-down American flag is a sign of distress or extreme emergencies. Some may also use it as a form of protest, which is protected as free speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Nonetheless, we’ll give a deeper explanation along with historic examples of when the flag was flown upside down.

Every Friday we have had a local protest at a big box grocery store on a busy street. As people drive by they see the protest with people carrying signs but it is difficult for them to take in and read all the signs. People following the the news about protests see photos of some of the more compelling signs but at an actual protest we decided that the upside down flag sends a simple and powerful message. We ordered one which will arrive tomorrow:

Until Trump’s election my guess is that most people who ordered and flew American flags were Trumpers. Now anti-Trumpers have begun to fly the flag either in the normal way or upside down. For example the man in the photo I took at a Hands Off protest a few weeks ago. 

He didn’t have to fly it upside down since it was clear what message he was sending.

When at a protest we think displaying the flag, whether upside down or not, is a good idea. Perhaps if there are enough people with flags having some right side up and the others upside down would send the message that we are all democracy loving patriotic Americans and we are in DISTRESS!

We plan to display our flag upside down so there’s no ambiguity in what we mean.

Addendum: If you don’t make it to local protests held in your areas regularly, don’t forget the National Day of Action Against Donald Trump Planned for May 1. Here’s What To Know.

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I am an old radical gratified to welcome a new generation of radicals. By Hal M. Brown -- HandsOff! proved that if it comes to it we won't hang alone.

 

This is my Michgan State University student ID from my days when I was active in the anti-war movment.

The anti-war movement at MSU, along with several other state universities, was described in the book Campus Wars: The Peace Movement At American State Universities in the Vietnam Era by Kenneth J. Heineman (read description). I personally knew some of the members of SDS and other Michigan State students mentioned in the book. I was in graduate school and was active in what the Social Work department did as part of the protests, especially after the Kent State massacre when most of Michigan State went on strike.

This was a movement that helped end an actual war. The anti-war protests contributed to the seminal historic moment when Walter Chronkite told America and LBJ it was over. "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." is attributed Lyndon Johnson. The thousands of students, their parents who they no doubt influenced, and the families of those fighting in Vietnam, were all Middle Americans.

President Lyndon Johnson, watching live in the White House, reportedly then turned to aides and said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” He would soon explain to the nation–accurately–that the Tet Offensive had been successfully repelled and was in fact a huge military failure for the Vietnamese communists. But it was too late. As Cronkite noted in his editorial, the public optimism of U.S. government and military officials about the progress of the Vietnam War was not in concert with the nagging realities of a quagmire. It was largely this credibility gap that destroyed Johnson’s presidency. Reference.

• Back to the HandsOff! protests against the war on democracy Trump has started:

My friend in Massachusetts took this photo at a HandsOff! rally yesterday.

The signs read left to right: “Hands of my pussy you fucking mango,” “HANDS OFF my court district & Constitution,” and BILLIONAIRES ARE RECESSIONPROOF, WE’RE NOT, HANDS OFF OUR DEMORCACY (unclear word).”

Very symbolically these protesters are standing here:

That’s Plymouth Rock. Look closely and you can see the date 1620 engraved on it. Of course, one should not need to be reminded that the Pilgims were immigrants who came to America primarily to escape religious persecution in England. They were welcomed here by Native Americans.

Here’s a middle aged American who does not look like he’d be anti-Trump. He was radicalized when his son, a Trump supporting soldier, was killed in Afghanistan.

This is the flag (from Amazon).

I talked to him at the HandsOff! demonstration in a Portland, OR suburb which we went to yesterday. I was gratified to see someone with a big black pick-up truck with both an American and an anti-Trump flag. He told me he’d be damned if he would let the flag get owned by MAGA.

The demonstration we went to had a mix of protestors of every age from people in their 80’s like my partner and me, and the friends we went with and met there, to members of Gen-whatever.

Our protest was next to the large Clackamas Center shopping center. We had protesters lining both side of two heavily trafficked roads for over a mile.

Here’s are some of the photos I took:

If you are one of my regular readers you know what a pessimist I am when it comes to dismissing our legal victories as mere bumps in the road for the Trump blitzkrieg to establish his dictatorship, and to his “gate” scandals being just distractions for him which he can shrug off mentally by winning a golf tournament.

However, we know how Trump loves bragging about his crowds and just on the face of it he was outdone yesterday. The only estimate of the number of participants so far is 500,000, but this comes from those who registered online to attend. Anyone could come to these events and my hunch is that lots of them were like us and didn’t bother to register. I think the total number is much, much higher.

I am waiting to see if Trump decides to call for pro-Trump demonstrations to prove he can outdo what happened yesterday.

Even though I live in a retirement community where 99% of the residents are anti-Trump, being part of the protest with people who felt strongly enough to get out there with their signs and stand for two hours or more made me feel less alone. I knew intellectually that my friends and I were not alone, but yesterday gave me a feeling. I experienced it viscerally, inside. It was like being part of an army carrying signs armed with passion and camaraderie. We were charging a well fortified enemy beachhead which, while not literally there shooting at us, very much wanted us to destroy us.

HandsOff! proved that if and when it comes to the final battle to save democracy we won’t hang alone. Let Trump try to hang us together. This will will ultimately be his downfall because of our passionate commitment to democracy. There are just too many of us. 

Addendum:

More protest signs here.

Below: On MSNBC

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