Protest Pictures

Every protest needs a pipe and drums group. This one led the Firefighters' Union. They were excluded from the no collective bargaining proposal in the State Budget Bill, but they showed their support and showed up en mass. They paraded through the Capitol Building and the crowd went wild. The Police union also supported the demonstration; they also showed in large numbers, but they didn't have any bagpipes, so they they were less memorable.


A sub theme of the signs was "anti-tea party" The tea party held a counter demonstration on the opposite side of the square, but it was a significantly smaller than the main protest. There were visible "peace marshalls" around, and lots of reminders that we were having a nonviolent protest. Organizers feared that the larger crowds in addition to the Tea Party would lead to conflict. We were also warned that they may have weapons. The police stood by and asked everyone to not carry weapons into the captiol- this was not an issue any other day of the week.

As far as I could tell, the Tea party was a sad minority. There weren't many taunts, more like "hey come join us!"

There seems to be lots of overlap between the working class republican base and people who support the right for unions to exist.

Fox 'News' was even offering Tea Partiers a free lunch, of course they had to show an ID. Teapartiers like to require ID. Oh well, I shouldn't mock the uppermiddle class white conservative minorty.

I had originally intended to protest Sarah Palin, ("refudiate this Bill!" and "Do anti-intellectuals support walker? You betcha!" -with a picture of Palin) but She will embarrass herself without my help. Plus, while jogging around the square I was hearing snatches of the Tea Party speaker, and felt my commitment to nonviolence beginning to wan.




More Cowbell Less Walker...



This is the scene in the middle of the Rotunda, and this has been kept up day and night for 5 days.



I love the popular culture references! I actually saw 2 gandolf signs.

These people are so creative! I also saw one that read "Hey Walker, why can't we be friends with benefits?" and a "Stop the Imperial Walker"


Some crazy lady was running laps around the square form 5am until about 8, then she took a break and did more! She must have done like 20 miles.
Protesting + exercising = protestercising (Martin came up with this word mash-up!)

The State motto is "Forward", this statue is The Lady Forward, and here she is blindfolded. I think I might try to be her for halloween this year.