Making Noise

So some of my friends were giving me some grief this past Saturday night at our support group after dinner. You see the next day was the big march in Washington, DC. The National March for Equality which would apply itself to the nation's lawn, the National Mall and environs.

She was posing questions to the members of my support group. "Will you be there?", "Why not?", "What could be more important?". She will read this so I will qualify anything I say here further. We are good friends, and good friends can agree to disagree and be civil about it. And we are, civil that is. I told her I had a different opinion of the march, and frankly of a lot of those sorts of things in general. In my opinion, they are ineffective.

So here is my take. Marches are common now, too common. I think next week the Society Opposed to Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches (SOPBJS) will march on the nation's capitol to make a point of some kind. Something about legume rights... If they are lucky a few reporters might show up and say something or do something to report on it. Maybe. Maybe not.

In the 60's marches made a difference. Why? Because they were unique. Groups of people taking to the streets have existed for centuries. Usually with violent outcomes. The 60s marches of Dr. King, war protesters and other rights advocates were effective because they were either non violent, at least on the part of the protesters, or those opposed to them used violence against them. Think Bull Connor and firehoses, or Kent State. This made an impression because at the time they were news.

Today's march, will be a footnote. By next week a memory. In a month, forgotten. I know all of my marching friends will say, that is not so. (I am probably making enemies at this point as they read on...)

I have another friend who was at the march, she has blogged on it. From her perspective, and she used to be in the public relations business, the march should generate some news, and as she called it, free press. I think her sentiments were well placed, however not quite right. Shortly after noon today another friend, who is pretty prominent in our community posted this to facebook. "Finally marching! LOTS of people, not much media." I wanted to post back, "And you expected what?"

A quick check of the media reports on the event describe it as "Tens of thousands of gay rights activists marched past the White House to the Capitol yesterday, demanding the right to marry and serve openly in the U.S. Military". Good thing those Transfolk attended (Remember it is LGB + t), Good thing the inclusive ENDA was on the radar out there. Please no cards and letters, I think anybody should be able to marry anybody they want. And have the freedom to enjoy the court system for the future divorce if applicable.

I went to CNN, an arguably "lefter" network than the others, and looked at the homepage, top stories. The photo I see, I guy with a clown nose, in a spacehelmet. This is the top news. I scroll down, Naked burglar caught on surveillance Video, TV shows that lasted one episode, scroll down more, see a few references to Obama speaking to the HRC (that is a good thing), then A dog helps children read, and there at the very bottom of the list Thousands march for gay rights...

Wow already a footnote, only hours old...

Please do not take this as crepe hanging. You see it is just that the march thing, is so 20th Century. It is something we do autonomically because we think it has impact because it is in our memory that it does. We remember Dr. King and his speeches, and other advocates. But marches do not do much for your elected officials. Nope they generally care about two things, money and happy registered voters in their districts.

The march also disrupts folks in the local area because people cannot get to work, or shopping, or just plain home. And I can tell you, pissing off somebody is not the way to get them to be sympathetic to your cause. I am not sure we think about that in that context, but as a person that has lived in the DC area for the past 20 years I have personally cursed visits from presidents, domestic and foreign, as well as many other dignitaries. Hell even the Cherry Blossoms are reason NOT to go downtown in the spring.

That all said, it is indeed a "feel good" event. I made the same comments to some who were at various "pride" events. I was unsure of the purpose of the events. I suppose it is to let others know we are there. But I will go back to my previous comment about such things being so very 20th century. I have more power in my keyboard than the whole march. Yep, right here. Why? Because it can be the genesis of ideas. And with those electrons streaming out, I can build communities, dialogs, debates and the free interchange of ideas and opinions.

How many people had their opinion of LGBT folks changed by the march? Few I suspect. How many would have them changed by a personal conversation with an LGBT person. What if that person was a loved one. This is the path. I know many are not going to agree with me. Let's look clinically.

I will assume for a moment that you actually live within driving distance of DC. And you have decided to go to the march. And that you will take the metro in or have to park in DC. So my guess is you might all average $10 each to get down there. Lets say for sake of argument that there really were 300,000 people there as posted by some (Check that, the Washington Post says tens of thousands actually but ok). And lets say that the average schmoo will spend 6 hours this day participating. That is $3,000,000 (three million folks), and 1,800,000 personhours.

Now maybe that headcount is wrong, we will probably know if a few days. But I am pretty sure that if $3M popped in to various lobby and support organizations they would take note, and apply it to doing good on our behalf. And then lets say that each of those 300,000 took part of that 6 hours to write their congressman, or senator, or local legislator a letter. Asking them for consideration. Only 1.8 million cards and letters, and I figure in 6 hours you could probably write or email all of those people, so it is more like 10 million. How about we do that with our time and money.

So to those of you who went down there, I am happy you did, I hope you feel inspired and energized. Me I am going to break out my checkbook, and my editor and do something that might really make a difference. [Thump, sound of getting off the stump]. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.