On March 11, at Independence Park there was a protest over issues that the current government is bringing into the forefront of people’s minds.
The Marshall Area Peace Seekers had coordinated the event and were able to see great improvement in their gatherings with about 75 people in attendance compared to the average 25-50. Sue Morton, Darwin Dyce, and Julie Walker are some of the people who were able to get this event off the ground.
Walker was able to give some insight on why the protest was needed. Some core issues that Walker lasered in on was the potential issues of fascism, mass deportation, dehumanization of LGBTQ+, specifically Trans, members and transnational politics. With all these issues there is a high likelihood of affecting people in the community of Marshall and Walker believes that those values are worth fighting for.
The community also shared encouraging honks from their vehicles and even some kind community members delivered a pack of water for the people attending the protest. However, despite the mostly positive reception there were still a small collection of people who were upset with whole idea and shared their opinions with choice words and obscene hand gestures.
Walker was also able to promise that there will be more protests in the future however dates at this time are unknown.
“There was a general sentiment that we need to do more of this there’s a feeling that there’s so much wrong that it’s hard to know what to do.” said Walker when asked about future protests. For those who want to help some ways Walker offered was to make sure people were having their voices heard while being safe.
“It’s important that we bring forward truth-based statements from high quality sources to combat the rampant misinformation that is happening.” Walker said on how to assist in getting the message across.
Walker was extremely passionate about “The Spiral of Silence Theory” in which of people are giving their opinions and not hearing something that matches their opinions that people are less likely to say something and continues to cycle through that. She wants to make sure that they aren’t just using a symbol but using their voices to make sure the change is able to get across.
