The wind of revolt against Trump

There is a distinct advantage to wearing press cards prominently when you are a journalist. That sets the table in a few words. PRESS. -. Montreal.

On Sunday, as photographer Ivanoh Demers and I moved through the crowd of Donald Trump supporters, these cards earned us many jokes. People shouted things like this to us: Ah! Canadians, residents of the 51st state or Ah! Canadian journalists; soon you will be Americans. We received several off-the-cuff offensive remarks, including several Fuck Trudeau enthusiastic.

But, Monday morning, as we went to cover a demonstration organized at Malcolm Trump and his billionaire friendsthese same press cards earned us, on the contrary, a spontaneous and warm reaction from a couple who came to do shopping in the Columbia Heights district, in the lobby of a shopping center where we had entered to warm us up for a few moments.

Are you Canadian journalists? We love Canada very muchtells us Joe Rabatin, doctor and professor at Brown University. He is very moved when he tells us about his anger at seeing Donald Trump in power.

I expect a time of great darkness in the United States. But I believe we will get through this because a lot of Americans and a lot of public officials won’t let it. I am galvanized. I want to oppose this darkness.

Meanwhile, Joe’s wife, Sarah Barnum, an art teacher, tells us: You will never become Americans. She laughs. Then quickly darkens. With watery eyes, she says: I was at the women’s march against Trump eight years ago. It was the capital of my country, a country where we let people move around, demonstrate, but today it’s so sad, downtown Washington looks like the capital of a police state.

Joe and Sarah adopted a young dog after the November election. To bring a little joy into our lives, says Sarah. What’s dangerous is that a lot of people who voted against Trump tend to want to bury their heads in the sand and tell themselves that it will pass. They don’t want to listen to the news anymore so they don’t hear all the bullshit he can say. But I believe that on the contrary, we must roll up our sleeves, pay attention and be vigilant. Apathy is dangerous.

As we continue our route towards Malcolm X Square, we meet Carl R. He is 31 years old and goes to the demonstration, armed with anti-fascist signs. From another generation than Joe and Sarah, he nevertheless uses the same vocabulary. Darkness. Trump, the other side of the light.

It is the beginning of a dark era. I’m afraid. I’m afraid of what will happen to my family, but also to people I don’t know. It is important that we demonstrate today, protest tomorrow and rebel for four years. This is the only way to get through this ordeal.

At Malcolm X Square, a few hundred people listen to the speech of a young woman who risks being deported from the United States because she does not have her papers. However, she grew up here, we understand. She harangues the crowd, referring to the fact that the inauguration took place indoors because of the cold.

We will brave the cold and it doesn’t matter what the weather is like! No matter how hard it is, we will fight against Trump and his oligarchs who are waging a war on the poor and immigrants.

Another migrant speaks and adds: The United States helped turn our countries into banana republics. They encouraged dictatorial regimes and corruption. Why do you think so many people have to leave poisoned lands to come and make a living here? Because they are starving.

On the edge of the park, whose real name is Meridian Hill, but which everyone calls Malcolm X Square in honor of the famous activist and leader of the fight for African-American rights who held there in the 1960s many rallies, Kymone Freeman hands out invitations to an anti-inauguration ball. The ball is intended to be a snub to the tradition of balls organized in Washington on the evening of presidential inaugurations. We must resist these fascists by dancinghe told me.

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In this park, nicknamed after a rebel, there is also a magnificent bronze statue of another great rebel, Joan of Arc, who rides her horse. The one nicknamed “the virgin” is considered a heroine in the history of France for having led the French armies to victory against the English during the Hundred Years’ War, guided by her faith and her courage.

At the foot of the statue, Anova Attien plays with her little daughter.

Obviously, many want to curl up in a ball and cry. We are discouraged by what is happening. But no, you have to get out. We must demonstrate. We cannot give up. Americans must revolt against this regime.

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We leave the square. In the streets, once again, our press cards exercise their power. Canadians? Journalists? We want to talk to you!

These are two Germans who came to attend the inauguration, but who are going to the anti-Trump demonstration. Monday morning, we told you about these people who came from all over the world to Washington to celebrate Trump. However, the two friends from Westphalia came to spend three days in the United States to see if the Americans would wake up, because they believe that Donald Trump constitutes a real danger. He’s a fascistsays Wolf Ram Boecar. Obviously they are fascists, him and his friend Muskrepeats his friend Hans Willi Döpp.

With names like that, we imagine they don’t use the epithet lightly and we had this conversation before Elon Musk made a gesture that some saw as a strange reminder of the Nazi salute in front of Donald’s supporters Trump.