After a powerful week of direct actions, Friday, October 14th was the big march. Those of us working to pull it off were very excited as we prepared to go begin the event.
We were also nervous. This is a big deal, what we’re doing here. We are standing up against an awful lot of power. We aren’t just confronting the biggest banks in Minneapolis and pushing the limits of the law, we are also making a bold stand in the public eye. We are risking public condemnation and disapproval from those we know. But to let the fear of taking that risk hold us back would be to let injustice win.
Before the march, we heard speakers describe the shame and misery that bank foreclosure brings to families. It is outrageous how hard people can work at their jobs and in navigating the mortgage-default bureaucracy and still lose their home. And it is infuriating how much damage is caused by foreclosures, discriminatory lending and bad financial practices. Especially when you look at how people of color and poor people are affected the most, in a time when racism is supposedly a thing of the past. So by the time the march began, I was angry. Sad and angry, right between my temples, my jaw clenched.
It feels good to walk down the middle of the street with hundreds of people, chanting out at the world about your anger, when you are in a mood like that. It is easy to cross that line and step off the sidewalk when you are with so many people who are all just as mad as you at the way things are. As we passed U.S. Bank, our chant of “Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!“ got even louder.
So when we got to Wells Fargo, we were ready to march right in and take over the bank to force them to deal with our concerns. Dozens of people were prepared to stay in there even if it meant breaking the law and getting arrested.
Wells Fargo was scared. They had already locked all their doors and shut down business for the day when we got there. Predictable. They have tried to ignore us all week, but with six or seven hundred people on their doorstep, we weren’t about to go away. We poured into the intersection. At first we stood and chanted, but then the whole crowd sat down, packed tight from crosswalk to crosswalk.
“Who’s country? Our country!” we chanted. This was an emotional moment. It is our country and it should work for us. For all of us. It made me proud to be with so many people who actually care, who are taking a courageous stand to make things better. I felt it in my heart, and I could see it in people’s eyes. My wife told me that for her too, this moment almost brought her to tears. So many different people from so many different communities had come together to use direct action on Wells Fargo to force them to change the way they are treating us. It was an honor to be a part of that with everyone there.
We continued on to the plaza where Occupy Minnesota is taking place. Our issues are their issues and really we are all together. As we joined the Occupation, I felt so much hope. We are not just in Minneapolis. This is happening all over the country, in too many cities to count; this is happening all over the world. We who desire justice are organizing ourselves to accomplish it.
At the end of the day, I realized that those butterflies in my stomach, that anger in my head and the pride and hope in my heart, all those emotions that I went through today, that is what it feels like when you are making history.
