A jubilant display of community at protest

Jubilance and community were the words that came to mind as I witnessed at least 1,000 people gather in Las Cruces on Saturday to protest the actions of the Trump Administration.

Folks were encouraged by how many protesters showed up. Over and over I heard people thank each other for attending. One man walked up to a group of demonstrators holding signs and shouted, with a smile on his face, “Love you, my fellow Americans!”

Passing motorists expressed support throughout the two-hour protest. Honks and waves were nearly constant at the busy intersection of Main Street and Picacho Avenue while protesters held signs with messages like “America has no kings” and “We will not comply.”

The spirit of defiance expressed by many signs shifted to jubilance as more and more people showed up. “Maybe we really can save democracy,” one protester told me.

Momentum

The task now is to grow the energy for protesting into organizing. We have local elections coming up on Nov. 4 in Doña Ana County and around the state. The mayor’s office is up for grabs in Albuquerque. Positions including city councilor and school board member will be on the ballot in Las Cruces and elsewhere.

And next year we’ll be voting for everything from county sheriff to U.S. representative.

It would also be great if we could channel some of this energy into policy. Stopping an effort to undo the Las Cruces City Council’s excellent new zoning changes would be a great start. Clearly we also need to do more about crime.

There’s so much potential for momentum following Saturday’s protests. In Las Cruces I heard expressions of anger, sadness, gratitude and joy from various protesters. Some of that was in reaction to the various ways in which the Trump Administration is dismantling the U.S. Constitution and our democracy.

But the overwhelming and positive energy came from being in community with so many others who are also ready to fight back.

Determination

Protesters gathered first at Albert Johnson Park on the southeast corner of the intersection of Picacho and Main. Then they lined both sides of Main Street all the way to the Downtown Mall, 250 yards south. They also spread out to the east along Picacho Avenue. Folks gathered at businesses on the north side of the Picacho/Main intersection, too.

By comparison, the last large gathering I saw in this spot was a tea party protest in 2009 attended by about 400 people. In 2017, 1,500 people gathered on the nearby downtown plaza for the women’s march.

There’s lots more room on the plaza and people already gathered there for the farmer’s market. Saturday’s protest was noteworthy because of how rapidly it grew beyond the space to overflow across streets to the north and west.

It was also noteworthy because the temperature hovered just below 45 degrees. A cold rain fell throughout the protest while the wind blew.

In other words, people were really determined to be there.

A diverse, nationwide movement

Friends ran into each other and hugged. Strangers complimented others’ signs. Motorists rolled down their windows and slowed as they passed to take photos and join chants and conversations.

There were young people and old. The protesters were a multiracial group. They showed up for different causes, from saving the U.S. Postal Service and public lands to opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza and the Trump Administration’s attempts to deport political opponents. They stood together with a shared purpose.

So many folks showed up with flags: Several American flags, some right-side-up and others upside down; Ukrainian and New Mexico flags; and flags representing the Black Lives Matter movement, gay rights, and the Anti-Imperialist Action movement.

There were similar “Hands Off!” protests throughout New Mexico. Some 2,000 people braved the snow in Santa Fe. In Albuquerque, according to the Albuquerque Journal, thousands showed up. There was impressive turnout at demonstrations in Alamogordo, Las Vegas, Socorro, Taos and Truth or Consequences, and even a protest in Shiprock.

Back in Las Cruces, folks were keeping an eye on other protests while participating in their own. I was asked if I saw the huge crowd sizes in Washington, D.C., New York and Milwaukee, or that Canadians protested on the other side of the river — and international boundary — from a large protest in Detroit.

‘Now it’s my turn’

One sign at the Las Cruces protest had me thinking about my grandfather, who fought the Nazis in Europe during World War II.

The woman holding the sign was standing next to a man who hoisted an upside-down American flag into the air. Her sign read, “Grandpa fought fascists. Now it’s my turn.”

I asked to take their photo. I told them my grandpa fought fascists, too.

That’s the energy I’m carrying forward from Saturday’s protests.