NOTE: Today’s post comes with a challenge, so feel free to skip to the hashtag at the end.
Way back in July 2018, Trump returned to the White House after a summit with Putin during which he refused to denounce any Russian interference in the 2016 election. Former Clinton advisor Adam Parkhomenko took to Twitter in protest.
In less than 30 minutes, a crowdfund campaign covered the costs for a mariachi band to play outside the White House during a night when Trump was already jet lagged. The concert went on to become part of a multi-day protest called Occupy Lafayette Park:
Is it me, or do the mariachi days of July seem cheerfully naive in light of this week’s reports that migrant children are being handcuffed and transferred to adult detention centers on their 18th birthdays? While “weaponizing” mariachi bands, opera singers and bagpipers may seem harmless, the use of oral or mechanical sounds has been used throughout history to convey a message during oppressive regimes.
In May 1917, the French army had already staged mutinies against the government, but when some units were forced to return to the trenches, the soldiers began “baaing” in protest, to signify that they were lambs to the slaughter. “The officers were helpless to prevent it.” (Source: The Methods of Nonviolent Action, Part Two, Gene Sharp.)
In 1968, in protest of forcible occupation, Czechoslovakian bishops called on churches to ring funeral bells. Soon, the city filled with the sound of sirens, car horns and train whistles. Soviet troops were so unnerved that they drew their pistols, terrified that an attack was about to begin.
#InternationalMargaritaDay
Today, on what is apparently #InternationalMargaritaDay, imagine what would happen if we used that hashtag to enlist the resistance to blare our car horns in time to “Impeach the President” on the hour, every hour for the next week? Or month? Or until 2020?
As my beloved Lidia Yuknavitch says, “we are nothing without each other.”
“Impeach the President”
Ladies and gentlemen
We have the Honey Drippers in the house tonight
They just got back from Washington, DC
I think they got somethin’ they want to say
[Verse 1]
Some people say that he’s guilty (that he’s guilty)
Some people say I don’t know (I don’t know)
Some people say, give him a chance (give him a chance)
Aw, some people say, wait till he’s convicted (till he’s convicted)
[Chorus]
Impeach the President
Impeach the President
Impeach the President
Impeach the President
[Interlude]
Impeach the President
(Aw nah, we can’t do that, man—nah, nah)
Impeach the President (Shut up, fool!)
Impeach the President
Impeach the President
Impeach the President
Impeach the President
LEIGH HOPKINS 