Washington DC and Code Pink House

Driving north from Charleston, SC, I saw miles and miles of pine plantation.   These trees are grown fast and clearcut for paper and wood stove pellets, for the US and Europe.

Here you can see the 7-9' trees on the left and the taller, maybe 30' trees on the right of the  road.

I had seen posts on Facebook about Firedrill Fridays -- weekly climate rallies in Washington DC, organized by Code Pink with Jane Fonda lending her celebrity buzz.  Paki Weiland, a super activist from W. Mass, is now living at the Code Pink house in DC and invited me to stay there.

That Thursday there weren't any activist events during the day, and I went to the African American Museum.  It is huge, very thoughtfully created, and well worth visiting if you are in DC.  There are three floors tracing the history of slavery and African Americans from 1619 to the Obama presidency, and finishing with what we need to be doing now and going forward.  And there are three floors exploring African American culture and contributions, how African Americans have been able to make a way where there was no way, and other subjects.  In the four hours I was there, I only touched the surface of the early history of slavery and the slave trade, and spent some time on the floor about how African Americans have been able to keep their humanity and dignity alive despite the brutal and unjust conditions they have always faced.  So much of what was shown was about establishing community for mutual support, whether a faith community, a Masonic community, or an actual black township which was established and peopled by African Americans.  Also, by over achieving in many fields, African Americans have stood up and demonstrated their excellence which has been a beacon for other African Americans, especially children.

There is a whole section on African American achievements in sports, including this statue of these Olympic champions raising a fist.  

You can see the African American Museum -- the black building on the left.  Interesting to see it next to the very white obelisk of the Washington Monument.  

I could have spent much longer there, but my feet gave out.  That night, Paki took me to an event at the Museum of the Palestinian People for the screening of a couple of films about the occupation.  I knew something about the Palestine situation, but was touched by this tiny, fledgling museum celebrating the culture of Palestine, the history of Israeli occupation, and the stories of the diaspora.  And then we went downstairs to a Palestinian bookstore where two Palestinian young men who are refugees studying in the US spoke to us, read poetry, and showed films.   I had never realized that "the Holy Land" from the Bible is where this conflict and violence is taking place.  These people came from Bethlehem and from other places whose names I had only ever heard as locations in the Bible.  And now they are war zones.  There is something so wrong about these lands where Jesus walked and sought peace becoming places again of deep injustice and suffering.  

And on Friday, we went to the Firedrill climate event.  Each week there is a theme - some aspect of climate emergency that is featured.  Everyone meets on the SE lawn of the Capitol Building, wearing red if possible, because this is about our home being on fire.  There are speeches and singing.  Sweet Honey in the Rock sang the Friday I was there. Despite the heavy rain and wind, there were close to 200 people at the rally.  Jane Fonda introduced each speaker.  She was arrested on two previous Fridays and released.  Third time was an automatic overnight.  She told everyone that being a celebrity and a white woman, they would treat her better than the other people in the jail.  She can't get arrested again because 4th time is an automatic 90 days in jail.  She has a commitment to go back to Hollywood to film the next season of Frankie and Grace in January so she can't be in jail.  But she was right there, leading us, carrying a long banner with some other folks from Code Pink, and very kindly doing selfies with demonstrators.  

After the speeches, the crowd marches to a location where they are going to rally and obstruct access.  We were heading for the Supreme Court, the day I was there, because of the important cases they are deliberating.  The police stopped us part way there as we were marching and singing down a street, obstructing the street.  They advise you to get out of the street if you don't want to be arrested.  People who plan to take arrest stay in the street and everyone else goes up on the sidewalks.

It was still pretty rainy while everyone was stepping up on the sidewalk or staying in the street to be arrested.  The theme for the Friday I was there was Water is Life - see the poster here.

Then the police begin handcuffing each person and walking them to the police vans where they get a preliminary pat down before going into the van.  We kept singing to them until they were taken away.  Apparently they are processed and then can pay a $50 fine and are all done.  Or they can refuse to pay the fine and receive a hearing date.  Seems like right now, everyone who receives a hearing date has been sent paperwork indicating they are released and no need to come for the hearing.  

Paki didn't think taking arrest was really very useful at this point.  The only reason to get arrested is to get media attention and it isn't going to be very effective right now.  Nonetheless 40 people took arrest the day I was there.

That night I went with Paki to an event honoring The Highlander Center.  For those of you who don't know about it, The Highlander Center was founded in the hills of Kentucky in the 1930's as a place for grassroots activists to meet.  Over the decades there have been workshops of all kinds there, and many famous activists went there to learn skills, network, and gain support from each other, including Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rep. John Lewis.  The Highlander has always gathered people together to brainstorm about how they can address their own issues and learn from each other.

Ash-Lee Woodard-Henderson and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Co-executive Directors of The Highland Center, networking in DC.  

The event took place at the Institute for Policy Studies, which is a DC non-profit whose focus is connecting activists with policy makers in Washington.  IPS has been the fiscal sponsor for many small non-profits, including The Sojourner Truth School for Social Change in W. Mass.  The wonderful thing about this gathering was that it was a room full of lively and engaged folks who all work in some form on social justice issues and who are in Washington to influence government to do the right thing.  It was heartening to realize that, along with the politicians and bureaucrats, Washington also has a large number of people who are working for social change.  Many of the people there that night were inspired by their time at the Highlander Center, and took this opportunity to network with each other over every issue you can imagine.

DC is an interesting city.  There are whole neighborhoods with row houses, painted in different colors.

Notice how narrow some of these houses are.

Code Pink House is a modest two story house in a quiet, diverse area with lots of fun posters on the walls.  

Colorful inside and out.  

I'm planning to go spend a week at the Code Pink House in early December and go to the Firedrill Fridays again at least once.