Sean Spicer is half right. Lots of liberal activists are, indeed, showing up at rallies and marches and protests and Congressional Town Hall meetings these days. But we're not being paid to be there.
Case in point: when my husband, some of our fellow activists from SFV Indivisible (a grassroots progressive advocacy group that formed after the January 20 inauguration and now numbers more than 7,000 local groups nationwide) and I showed up, in response to open invitations on Facebook and Twitter, at Monday's "Not My President" rally at L.A. City Hall, one thing became crystal clear: no one was in charge.
There were no staffers with clipboards and sign-up sheets. No microphones. No stage. No agenda. No donation bucket. Just people, with hand-drawn signs.
As the crowd began to grow, uncertainty abounded: Where should we stand? What should we do? What should we say? Who would lead us?
The press -- representing all of the national TV networks, L.A.'s local channels, Spanish language networks and CNN, along with a wide swath of local, regional and national print and radio outlets -- seemed equally nonplussed. They watched. And waited.
And then, it happened. WE led us. The crowd assembled en masse on the steps of City Hall facing Main Street, and began shouting out the concerns that had brought us there, while city bus drivers and ordinary people heading to work drove by, waving and honking their horns in support.
Someone would initiate a chant -- "Not my president!" for starters -- and the crowd would pick it up. A group of young women with drums and other musical instruments arrived, lending melody and pulse to the chants that ensued.
"Love, not hate, makes America great!"
"You'll build a wall. We'll tear it down!"
"No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA."
"Stand up! Fight back!"
"My body, my choice!" -- which quickly transformed itself into a women's and men's call and response: "My body, my choice! Her body, her choice!"
"Dump Trump!"
"Don't lie!"
"Lock him up!"
"Black lives matter!"
"Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!"
"Investigate! Impeach!"
Another call-and-response: "What does democracy look like? THIS is what democracy looks like!"
And then one that brought grins to more than a few reporters' faces: "Free press!"
As the chants continued, the group of a thousand or so, who had braved a rainy Southern California morning to attend, spontaneously began to march around to the Spring Street entrance to City Hall, where we filled the lawn and hillside steps leading up to the building and continued to speak our minds.
A jovial, peaceful march through downtown followed.
Throughout the day, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department stood on the sidelines, chuckling at one chant or another, and politely reminding stragglers to stay on the sidewalks and out of traffic. They were there to do their jobs: to protect and to serve those of us who had come to do our duty as citizens.
No one signed us up to join a group or receive any emails. No one exhorted us to donate to an organization -- although some enterprising individuals did set up tables along a sidewalk, where they sold political buttons and T-shirts. Several vendors cooked up sausages and vegetables, filling the air with savory aromas.
And no one paid us or offered us gifts to be there -- unlike the Trump "reelection" rally in Florida the prior Saturday, which had offered people cash or gifts on CraigsList in exchange for their attendance. There were no buses chartered by a left-wing version of the Koch brothers, as there were at Tea Party events in 2009 and 2010. There were no pre-printed signs handed out by a political organization.
No, Mr. Spicer, we are not paid protesters. We are not mercenary agitators. We are Americans, exercising our First Amendment rights, and demanding a hearing with the public servants we elected to represent us.
You, and your boss, would be well served to recognize those facts -- and to start listening to us as we speak up and speak out about your legislative proposals and your harmful unilateral actions.
Because we will keep rallying. We will keep speaking out. And we will be heard.
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