http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2008/11/15/today_s_prop_8_protest_1 Comments On: Today's Prop 8 Protest by Amy J. Ruiz en-us Copyright 2009 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:45:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by Beer Batter]]> Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:14:02 -0800 Portland Mercury
Am I the only one who remembers regular anti-war marches (Fridays maybe?) that simply stuck to the sidewalks and obeyed the traffic signals, thereby technically just being a bunch of people walking, not a "march", and therefore required no permit?
Posted by The One True b!X]]> Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:38:07 -0800 Portland Mercury
I understand that it was organized on short notice, but that's an excuse that we can use to forgive ourselves so we don't have to face up to inefficacy of the act. And a poor one at that.

There was an entire campaign cycle to start preparations should the measure have passed. Here is a place to take a lesson from our resident evil genius Bill Sizemore, who already has bills prepared for the next election cycle that are simply different versions of the ones we just voted down. If we are serious about gaining equal rights, then we need to take it seriously, and that means planning for the long term.

To conquer the highly organized right-wing hate machine, we need to be more organized than them, and that means that even if it's on short notice, blunders like these are absolutely unacceptable.

Here's a list of problems with that rally--which I attended and supported--but that need to be addressed so that those outside the choir will start paying attention.

1. The sound was atrocious. Speeches that can't be heard are wasted. There are no excuses for those speeches being started without even a megaphone. Even less for there being no sound system worth speaking of. And even less for the speakers seeming inability to operate what pitiful excuses for a sound system that were there. We live in Portland people. Every basement in the city is stocked with music and sound equipment. Get with the program.

2. Time delays. People show up at ten thirty, to be told to wait around until noon? Are you serious? Talk about taking the wind out of people's sails. There was energy, and it was wasted and dissipated by poor planning.

3. On the same tip, the lack of a march. Yes, I understand that legality needs to be maintained in order for the movement to stay in the right, and that the permit was for a rally, not a march, but people showed up with energy to do something, and were instead told to sit still. That doesn't inspire action. Rally organizers failed big time here.

4. I could hear the speakers. And most of the time, I wished I couldn't. Before I left out of disgust, they were weak, uninspiring, and often offensively inaccurate. One referred several time to "Project 8," rather than Prop 8 before babbling a series of inaccurate statistics and mistakes about laws passed in other states and blaming the heterosexual community as a whole, another rambled about God washing away all discrimination, and another stood next to the stage rather than on it while reading a weak boilerplate statement. Huge mistakes were made about which parts of the political process was responsible for what actions by people who should have known better. I'm sorry, but that it just not good enough. To make this work, we need speakers who truly understand the issues, and have the ability to inspire and keep people motivated for what may indeed be a very long haul. I did not see those speakers at this rally. What I did see was primarily a self-congratulatory group of local celebrities offering bumper sticker level analysis of the issues. These rallies are the chance to get the real message out there to the media, and to the public and that opportunity was in my mind, wasted.

I will continue to support all actions taken to achieve equal rights in this city, and nationwide. But if they are to be ultimately successful, this kind of half-assedness should not be deemed as acceptable under any circumstances. We can do better. And to be victorious, we must.

And to me, the most upsetting part of this, is that I'm the one who seems most irate at the failure of this rally, and I'm not even gay.
Posted by badgoat]]> Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:01:01 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by aSuckerForSoftServe]]> Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:39:01 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Amanda Bandana]]> Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:05:31 -0800 Portland Mercury
See for yourself:
Andrew Sullivan's blog today has tons of photos. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
Our neighbors to the north in Seattle filled the streets with more than 10,000 marchers. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/…
Posted by john t]]> Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:24:28 -0800 Portland Mercury Considering the length of time in which the Portland rally was organized (less than a week) I would think you should be proud of what was done. If you are so disappointed in Portland, why don't you get up and organize something yourself?
Posted by bleigh]]> Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:24:46 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by john t]]> Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:56:05 -0800 Portland Mercury