One Drop at a Time
Each one of us adds to the growing number of individuals who care, whose heart is breaking, who’s had enough, who is not willing to tolerate cruelty. And the more of us who show up, the more we inspire others to show up.
A First Time for Everything
Dear friends,
For the past 4 weeks, myself and some of my fellow Gang of Crones (a small group I started in January consisting of a handful of older women who are combining our strengths and wisdoms to do whatever we can to get our politicians to address some of the major crises we are all facing) have been gathering at various street corners, wearing signs, and banging Pots for Peace in Palestine to bring attention to Israel's war crimes. The first 3 Saturdays our numbers ranged from 6-8 women banging pots, garnering a respectable amount of attention and support from the passing public. Last Saturday I counted 16 of us, including a 77 year old woman who told me this was the first time in her life she had ever attended a protest, but she came in solidarity with her daughter who was on the Global March to Gaza. Wow! This just blew me away. I’ve been marching and protesting for the better part of 57 years. To have this woman join us for her very first protest felt like a huge validation of why I bother to keep showing up.
Pots for Peace in Palestine came together very quickly and very organically as members of our group, each of us deep in grief over the ongoing genocide we are witnessing, tried to figure out what we could possibly do to stop it. We are all chronic petition-signers and letter writers, but, despite our efforts, Netanyahu’s Israel grows more dangerous and deadly by the minute. Somehow, showing up in public, dressed in black, wearing signs and literally being noisy seemed like the logical next step in our determination to stop this unholy genocide.
At this point you’re probably thinking that I’m possibly delusional believing that me and a few friends can stop Israel’s killing machine by standing on a street corner banging pots. While I sure wish it was that easy, I’m quite certain that peace will not magically unfold next Saturday when we are out making more noise. No, as far as I’m aware, I’m not delusional, but what I do know is that I cannot do nothing as long as this horror continues, and that change only comes about when enough of us demand it.
With our pot-banging actions gaining more attention and more participants, a few of us had a wee confab this week to try to give our pot-banging group a little more structure. We discussed protest locations (we move around), communications, and what we hope to achieve. We hit a moment in our discussion where we all had to admit that neither our pot banging nor our letter writing nor our petition signing is likely to stop the bloodshed, and that raised the question, “Why are we even doing this?” Enter, the 77 year old first time protester.
Last Saturday, while 16 of us gathered here in Victoria, BC to bang pots for peace in Palestine, an estimated 13.14 million Americans hit the streets in their hometowns to protest the wannabe king. Both actions were important, and both were made up of concerned individuals coming together. Individuals. Lots of them (us) are coming together to fight fascism and war and injustice. Each one of us adds to the growing number of individuals who care, whose heart is breaking, who’s had enough, who is unwilling to tolerate cruelty. And the more of us who show up, the more we inspire others to show up. One day, I believe we will reach a critical mass that turns this ship around.
Shishi-Odoshi – “Deer-Frightening” or “Boar-Frightening”
I’ve been thinking lately about a very cool water feature at our local Butchart Gardens called the shishi-odoshi, or more specifically (I think) a sōzu. Aesthetically pleasing as well as functional, a sōzu consists of a bamboo tube perched on a balance point. When empty, its heavier, sealed end is down, resting against a rock while its lighter, open end is up. From a different bamboo tube placed above, water drips into the upper end of the empty tube, slowly filling it, one drop at a time, until it is so full that it shifts the tube's centre of gravity past the pivot point, causing the tube to tilt forward and dump out all the water. Once emptied, the heavier end then falls back against the rock with a mighty thwack, at which point, the tube starts to refill again, drop by drop. Presumably, the sharp smack on the rock is what frightens deer or boar away.
I think of this beautiful, soothing water feature that also scares away unwanted beasts as I try to figure out my role in taking on our global challenges. I feel like I am just one of those individual water drops filling the bamboo tube. And so are you. And so are each of my friends. And so is the 77 year old woman who joined us for her first protest. And so are the estimated 13.14 million Americans who turned up for NO KINGS Day. Not a single one of us can possibly fill that bamboo tube alone, so that it smacks hard on the stone that will scare away the beasts, but all of us together can fill the space and create enough force to get this job done. We are so damned powerful when we join together, and every single one of us plays a vital role in this cause.
On Critical Mass and the Role of Women in the Resistance
I went searching for some details about Erica Chenoweth’s 3.5% rule that’s been making the rounds since the headcount from last Saturday’s mass protests (it looks like this magic percentage was quite possibly reached). What I came across instead was this article Revenge of the Patriarchs – Why Autocrats Fear Women that they co-wrote with Zoe Marks and published in Foreign Affairs in 2022. As our Pots for Peace in Palestine group is women-led by a gang of crones, some of the things in this piece caught my attention, clarifying the important role we women in particular are playing in the growing demands for peace and justice.
“It turns out that frontline participation by women is a significant advantage, both in terms of a movement’s immediate success and in terms of securing longer-term democratic change. Mass movements in which women participated extensively on the frontlines have been much more likely to succeed than campaigns that marginalized or excluded women.”
And I particularly loved this one, sticking with the water metaphor: “In other words, women’s participation in mass movements is like a rising tide, lifting all boats.”
I think I can safely say I speak for our group when I say, we’re here for it.
The authors also say, “People want to join the winning team, and when there are large numbers of diverse participants, that can help encourage tacit or overt support from political and business elites and members of security forces”.
The first Saturday we went out to bang pots, we situated our protests in one of the wealthier neighbourhoods around Victoria. Of course, the cops came – a sweet young she-cop who claimed to be concerned about our safety. At one point she said, “You’re not the usual suspects.” I imagine her image of “the usual suspects” who protest for peace in Palestine are angry young brown men, or 'scruffy' students. Of course, this is a broad assumption on my part, but she made it clear that she wasn’t expecting a small group of older women to step up to the front line and loudly protest. I’m glad we were able to challenge her idea of who protests for peace.
The Patriarchy Isn’t Going to Overthrow Itself!
History tells us that not a single government passes good policy out of the goodness of their hearts. Progressive policy comes about because one or a few people start to make a noise about environmental degradation, human rights abuses, inequality, dangerous conditions, etc. Other people listen and see the benefit in supporting the cause. Then more people join in until, eventually, a critical mass makes enough noise, forcing the lawmakers to turn whatever the cause is into binding legislation.
In the US just now, every single Republican is licking the wannabe dictator’s boots (gross) and refuses to speak out against even his worst transgressions. It would appear that many Democrats still think that we’re playing by the rules which, we’re obviously not. As much as I enjoy relentlessly haranguing Republicans and will continue to do so as my civic duty as a concerned human, it is quite obvious that we cannot count on those in office to overturn the power grab of this vile regime. It’s up to us. Each of us. All of us.
Authoritarian regimes fight tooth and nail to hang onto the power that allows them to fuck things up. Authoritarian regimes take even more work than your average democratic government, but all of them, every one, is eventually toppled by a critical mass of individuals who refuse to accept life under a dictatorship. We are today’s critical mass. Whether we are demanding an end to genocide or the end of the wannabe dictator, our numbers are growing, and soon they will no longer be able to ignore us. And the really important part of this is that each and every one of us plays a vital role towards reaching the magic number that shifts the balance of power.
Make no mistake, the evils and injustices that we are seeing in the world just now (and pretty much throughout history) are the fruit of patriarchy. As the saying goes, “The Patriarchy isn’t going to fight itself” so it is up to us to join forces and take it down. Let’s do this!
With you all the way,
Jessica
