Although protesters have been driven from their peaceful occupations of almost every location across the nation, including Wall Street, Los Angeles, UC Davis and Oakland, they have managed to hang on at a busy intersection across the street from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, one of the most conservative cities in the country.
Even though they are enduring a bitterly cold winter, with a wind chill factor of close to zero on some mornings, it appears the Lubbock occupiers are there to stay. Mayor Tom Martin has said: “The land at 19th and University is street right of way, it's not a park. So there is no curfew on that particular piece of property. The people that are engaged in the Occupy Lubbock movement are exercising First Amendment rights.”
The young people who are occupying the encampment are dedicated to getting the word out in a community in which many people are unaware of the occupy movement, and they welcome the rank-and-file members of the Tea Party to join them in their efforts to overcome Citizens United. We should all stand so tall and be so well spoken.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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