Sonoma's 'Good Trouble' rally & protest lacks youth movement
'Good Trouble' rallies honor Rep. John Lewis
Today marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Congressman John Lewis. More than 1,500 rallies were held across the country to honor the legacy of the civil rights leader.
SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. - The five-year anniversary of the death of Congressman and civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis came on Thursday with as many as a thousand rallies across the nation in big cities and small towns such as Sonoma. That's where a crowd celebrated John Lewis National Day of Action.
Day of Action
What we know:
It was two hours of sights and sounds of and by those who did it in the 1960s. The rally led off with an iconic 1067 protest song by the Buffalo Springfield sung buy a local artist.
"Singing songs and carrying signs. Mostly say hooray for our side. It's time we stop. Hey, what's that sound? Everybody look what's goin' down," he sang.
More than 200 people participated. Bypassing cars, horns blaring, sound support. Booths offered information, souvenirs and political paraphernalia.
Civil rights legends
Lewis, a contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr., was beaten and seriously injured on "Bloody Sunday" 60 years ago in Selma, Alabama trying to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He would serve 34 years in Congress as a civil rights icon.
The Sonoma rally was as much about praising Lewis as damning the president. "We demand an end to wealthy and well-connected slashing programs that working people rely on, including Medicare, SNAP and Social Security to line their own pockets. Amen?" said one speaker.
"Your greatest power, your greatest strength and the greatest fear that this administration has are all the same: vote," said another speaker.
One person who came put it simply this way. "I came to join in the protest of the current government. We would like him to leave and stop it," said attendee Sean Elizabeth Lemert.
For a Thursday afternoon in Sonoma, quite a turnout. But, there was decidedly an absence of younger people. "Disappointed: well I do know where they are; on their devices I suppose. Yeah, not involved," said Lemert.
One much younger attendee said this. "It's scary for a lot of people to protest and to be seen as somebody who's protesting especially being young and not wanting to draw attention to themselves and put themselves in any danger," said Celina Alba.
The rally organizer responded this way. "There are times when your freedoms are so much at risk that you may be pushed to a different level of good trouble," said Wake Up Sonoma President Lisa Storment.
In the words of John Lewis: get in good trouble, necessary trouble and save the soul of America.
Featured
"Good Trouble Lives On" protests honor legacy of John Lewis
The legacy of civil rights icon John Lewis will live on across America Thursday, with more than 1,600 events scheduled on the fifth anniversary of his death.