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By IdaRose Sylvester and Sally Lieber
As longtime community organizers, we are frequently asked why we bother to keep organizing protests, and why people should bother attending. People will tell us that, “Standing on a corner for two hours with a clever sign, especially in a blue area, means nothing. This isn’t doing a thing to create change!” We wholeheartedly beg to differ.
After planning six events so far in 2025, with another planned on Monday, Sept. 1, we would like to share our observations on why protests matter, and why we spend the energy designing successful, and often historic, events.
First of all, we gently counter that a show of strength, especially in our “blue” area, matters tremendously. A single protest may not move policy needles immediately or create change tomorrow. However, it sends a signal that those of us who are worried about the current administration’s overreaching actions are here in large numbers, and are motivated, energized and not afraid to stand up for our beliefs. We outnumber those in power who create authoritarian policies and threaten our democracy – full stop.
Protests also tell our elected officials, who are generally aligned with our mission, that we support their efforts to protect our values, and that we will demand they continue to fight with us to defend our democracy. Building this mutual relationship with elected leaders is fundamental to playing an active, ongoing role in our democracy.
We could stop there and say we’ve justified protesting, but we have learned something else that makes the point of protesting all the more poignant to us, and to the increasing numbers of attendees at our events. We are honored to find out that people joining us are attending their first protest ever, from young children to people in their 90s. What moves them to act, and inspires our efforts, is building community by coming out together. Meeting people and making friends. Knowing you are not alone in acting, or in how you think or feel. Spending time talking, laughing, singing, cheering, sharing future actions, making plans to work together and getting reenergized for the day-to-day grind.
Our protests bring joy to attendees, while building a long-term, sustainable community, which is so vitally important in our increasingly screen-obsessed, post-pandemic isolated and politically-divided nation.
After our historic, roughly 20,000 person strong June 14 No Kings event that stretched 7 miles on El Camino Real from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale, countless people have come up to us confirming that building community mattered, but most importantly, being together brought back hope. As long as we have hope for a better tomorrow, we will persist, for the betterment of all of us, and the success of America.
We are aware of how hard it is to keep up optimism, and to keep fighting for what we believe in, but we encourage you to keep on going, and find community and find hope in the ongoing efforts of people and organizations supporting our democracy. Justice is always a long and continual path, and democracy is much like a garden that always needs tending. Our goal as organizers is to help and support you on this long, but beautiful, path to a better future.
IdaRose Sylvester and Sally Lieber are longtime community activists in Mountain View. Lieber is a former City Council member and state Assembly member, who now serves on the California State Board of Equalization. Sylvester is a member of the city’s Human Relations Committee and a former City Council candidate.
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