Yesterday, while reviewing emails I received over the past couple of days, but hadn't had time to look at yet, I saw an email, informing me that there were tax marches planned for today, April 15th. There were four within a 50 mile radius of where I live. In Pennsylvania, they were in Philadelphia, Hazleton and Bethlehem. In New Jersey, there was one in Plainfield. I suspect there were others in New Jersey, but not within 50 miles of the zip code I live in.
The one in Philadelphia would obviously be the largest with the most energy, but it did not fit in with my schedule and would have taken approximately three to four hours round trip commuting time, if I took the train (this includes getting to the train station and waiting for the train). On top of that, it started at 10 am, which would pretty much interrupt all of the other things I had to do today.
The next closest venue was Bethlehem, just approximately 30 minutes up the road from where I live. I knew it would be much, much smaller, but the time was right, at 1 pm. This would give me the time to get all of my chores done and the commute would eat up much less time. So it was decided ....... Bethlehem.
As I said, it wasn't big, but considering it is in the heart of a very Republican North Hampton county, I thought over 200 people was a pretty darn good turn out. We know the number because the organizers had attendees sign in as they entered the plaza where the demonstration was. It was great that this crowd was not 'afraid' to be vocal. Many of us had signs, Many had pink pussy hates from the Women's March on January 21st. I spoke with a lot of these women, with pink pussy hates, and they had all been at the Women's March. Great, the energy was being maintained.
There were 5 or 6 speakers. At one point, a very spirited chanting of "lock him up" took hold for a minute or two. It interrupted the speaker. Two speakers, in particular, really captured the collective attention and spirit of the crowd and built its energy into more than I would have thought possible. The crowd was applauding and answering back as if we were in a Black Baptist Church. They were both women.
The first was around my age, maybe a little older, maybe in her late 60s. She made clear, with statistical backing, how ridiculous and over blown our military spending is. I don't remember the Statistics, but one was certainly impressive. If our military spending was only what trump has proposed as the increase that he wants, it would be the same as Great Britain's total spending.
The other speaker that really got the crowd going was the last speaker. She had not been scheduled to speak, but asked the organizers for a few minutes. She was a student at near by Moravian College. She was about twenty years old, and her energy, passion, intensity and enthusiasm was completely infectious. She got the crowd applauding and yelling back in response to what she was saying from the outset of here off the cuff remarks and it didn't stop responding until she was finished and then there was a large eruption of sound.
During the demonstration there was one schmuck (that means 'dick' in Yiddish for those of you who may not know what the word really means) who attempted to disrupt us, but we all did just the right things. First of all, we ignored him. We did not give him the attention he was looking for. Secondly, when it made sense, when it matched with what the speaker was saying, we easily drowned him out.
In the email that announced the action, it had a map of the U.S. and it was covered with those pins that populate maps on the net. Wall to wall. In total, there were over 150 demonstrations nationwide.
In D.C. protesters came from as far south as North Carolina and as far north as New York. One protester, Leslie Thiel, 58, from Jackson Springs, North Carolina said, "There's a lot of dots connecting him [trump] to Putin, and I think his taxes would reveal the final dot," And this my friends is why trump's taxes must be looked at. One woman in Bethlehem had a sign calling for an independent prosecutor, and that is the only way that his taxes will be seen. They must be subpoenaed, and an independent prosecutor is the only one who is going to do it.
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/tax-march?source=PCCC
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/15/tax-day-protesters-demand-trump-release-his-returns.html
I'm including some snaps of the Bethlehem protest. Enjoy!
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