Margaret Atwood wrote that when she asked a male friend why men feel threatened by women, he answered, “They are afraid women will laugh at them.”
When she asked a group of women why they feel threatened by men, they said, “We’re afraid of being killed.”
Whatever the outcome of this morning’s vote, today will change history.
Last night, I cried, but this morning, on my birthday, I woke up 50 and full of rage.
For weeks, I’ve been putting my fury into grassroots organizing and releasing the steps from From Dictatorship to Democracy – a pamphlet based on forty years of non-violent methods of demonstration – written and printed by Professor Gene Sharp. Now in its fourth edition, the pamphlet has been translated into thirty-one languages. It was passed hand-to-hand as a photocopied pamphlet from Burma to Indonesia, Serbia and most recently Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, with dissent in China also reported. Surreptitiously handed out amongst youth uprisings the world over, this how-to guide played a role in successful uprisings across the globe.
Just 3.5% of us engaging in sustained non-violent action – that’s what this takes.
Steps 1-6 were on the list of formal actions, but today we move on to the nonviolent informal actions, the actions that might seem harmless, but are on the playlist of every successful nonviolent campaign.
This is where we laugh at them.
– images courtesy of Marilyn Wood, a fellow activist and friend, taken during DC demonstrations on Thursday. Senator Elizabeth Warren was the only person who joined them in the streets. 300 people were arrested. Marilyn wrote to me: “It matters most that we fight back.”
LEIGH HOPKINS 