Here They Come Just In Time...

The Power Puff Girls used to be big on our tv viewing list, and I still remember their little jingle: "Fighting crime/Trying to save the world/Here they come - just in time/The Power Puff Girls."

As it happened, my classes were going over an article they had read about how kids today just aren't "joiners", and the benefits of what is called "social capital." Social capital includes all sorts of networking--everything from having a mentor who puts in a good word for you with a job prospect to your grandma's bowling league. We were talking about how we thought kids really are engaged, they just do it in different ways than their parents and grandparents did, so on, and so forth. For the second section I teach, which is closer to the student center, my students came in all worked up over some demonstrations literally across the street.

Apparently, some rag tag group of holy-haters decided to do an impromptu demonstration at the school. They had giant signs of aborted fetuses and signs about how you could go straight if you were gay, and a megaphone with probably their best and brightest young fellow giving everybody hellfire and damnation. What set people on edge even more, was the fact that one family (it looked like there were about 3 sets of adults) had brought their kids. Seven year old boys holding signs in a potentially dangerous crowd, under the banner of homeschooling, set a lot of people off. Two of the teenage girls were crying, either because they didn't want to be there or because the hostility of the crowd frightened them. What dumbass parents. Anyhoo.

My students were incredibly restless, and I have to admit I was too. It was hard to talk about the concept of "joining" when you actually could join right outside the door. All kinds of sirens were going on. There were loud cheers from time to time. It was all very exciting. They asked me to make it a field trip--to which I responded that they would all promptly depart for lunch. We did, however, get to talk about negative social capital, and the kind of bonding that comes over making yourself exclusive, like so many fringe religious movements do. It is far less important that you convert someone than it is that you build solidarity as a group. You're supposed to be the minority, and you're supposed to be ridiculed. That's what makes all the ridiculous sacrifice "worthwhile"--the social capital you get from those in your group. Of course, when your group abandons you, well, you get the fall out like former Jehovah's Witnesses experience.

We cut out 15 minutes early. They were just too keyed up, and so was I. I had at least half of them continuously ask me, "Mrs. Virgil, are you going over there??" They know a little something of my background. Just that I'm activist-oriented, really. They jump to conclusions too easily for me to tell them anymore. So with all this talk of joining groups and "doing the right thing," I felt damn near obligated to go. I didn't want to be a "do as I say, not as I do" kind of teacher. I wanted to do it anyway, though. When I got there, the crowd was pretty big. I surveyed everything, and then stepped to the front and asked one of the girls if she'd like me to take over the sheet she'd been holding to block one of the disgusting signs for hours. I also took one of her signs and held it up. She was very grateful. And then a few other people stepped forward, and a few more after that.

I learned from my last protest experience, that the symbol of somebody stepping forward "from the crowd" is a very powerful one. People want to do something, but are too scared to make the first move. Once somebody breaks the ice, lots of people will follow. I was very impressed with the students. They weren't violent. They jeered the people, but didn't attempt to tear up their stuff. But I was especially impressed with our fem group. This protest was planned, but not advertised outside of their own web site. So, the gals really didn't have time to prepare. When they first got news of it, they immediately dropped everything, and grabbed sheets to cover the signs, posters of their own, etc. It was quite the effort, with no preparation before hand. Our president was right up on the steps with the holy-haters--unafraid and a calm, steady rock--with her own sign, which she used to block much of what they were trying to do. Here's a snapshot of Britt in an altercation with one of them: Don't touch, you dumb bastard!


I'll try to find a better link, because I believe that link will change in 24 hours. I was about 2 feet from the guy's right thigh, as that was the third time he grabbed for her stuff, and I thought he was going to hit her. I was headed his way yelling "Don't touch her, you dumb shit," with one foot up on the wall they were standing on when the cops came running through the flower beds. Happily, there isn't an embarassing picture of me standing with the guy, being escorted away.

I was also impressed with the range of students who showed up for this. Some claiming to be Christian, some shouting they were atheists (like that helps a fundy change), gay and straight, every sort of major, every sort of personality. There was one dude there who was wearing a red shirt with a hammer & sickle on it. Not sure why some kids go in for that sort of thing. Fundies will tend to lump everyone together when they see symbols like that. "Oh, look, they're commie atheists!!" Sigh. To each his own. But there was quite the range of students.

I know that prevailing wisdom, some of it circulating on our listservs when those in charge realized what was going on, says not to engage groups like that. That the more effective way of shutting them down is to ignore them. I disagree with that, and I always have. Ignoring the religious right got us an incompetent president and the worst times we've seen in years on many fronts. The "silent majority" is NOT the way to go. People need visual symbols of what is possible, visual confirmation that those people do not represent the way to do things. That's what it means to step out of the crowd and say "How can I help." Students were bringing other fems in the protest bottles of water and such. It's about how you can individually contribute. Walking on by tells the crowd you just don't care. Stepping forward says you care enough to make it known. Go girls!!



-- Virgil

Edit: Here is a better link from the school newspaper. No danger of this one going away. Woman standing up for her rights to a natty old white man who has no uterus anyway.