Rally

[debka_notion]

I attended my first rally tonight. It was in reaction to a woman having been arrested a couple of weeks ago for wearing a tallit at the kotel. It was a walk and then a big crowd listening to some sort of speakers whom I couldn't understand. So after a bit of that, I left early to walk home with a friend who had to get back to working on application essays for next year. The rally was an interesting mix of people, and included a wide variety of folks I knew- I saw many, many of my classmates, some friends from RRC, other friends from the Conservative Yeshiva, etc, etc.

It got a little confusing as part of the rally ended up being more general "take back Jerusalem from the Hareidim" in ways that were about letting more things be open on Shabbat, instead of being focused on the kotel issue and religious freedom there. One of my friends commented that it was like there were two rallies squished together: one of non-hareidi religious people talking about the kotel, and another of secular folks talking more broadly about control of Jerusalem. So the posters around me said things (in Hebrew, but I'm too lazy to type in Hebrew right now) like "There's more than one way to be a Jew" and "Free the Kotel a Second Time".

At one point some folks behind us lit a very small fire and got some sort of hot air balloon lit and going, and then released it, so that it flew away over the crowd. It distracted pretty much everyone briefly. It was a lovely thing to watch, but left me quite concerned as it was this flying thing with fire in it, roaming freely on the winds. I just dearly hope that it burned out before it hit anything inflammable...

Comments

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

The rally reminded me a bit of a story a high school friend told me of a protest that she drove by in Utah. There were about 8 people there, and each one had a sign. Each sign was protesting something- but each sign was protesting something entirely distinct and separate from what each other sign (and the person holding it) were protesting.

But protesting alone is pretty useless, so you join up, even if the messages aren't quite the same. There's some underlying core of shared belief, even if it's poorly articulated. I think the rally wasn't necessarily a bad move- but better planning to articulate what vision is shared and focusing on that would have been more effective and more honest- if perhaps less impassioned.

Still, dialogue might build bridges, but it isn't going to convey anything much to the government, while a rally might. Dialogue to go along with a rally would be great- but dialogue alone (as much as I honestly love dialogue and the openness and connection it can create) is not going to do a lot for the legal situation.

[hotshot2000.livejournal.com]

אה"נ, which is why conversation (I don't like the word dialog because of the formal connotations it has picked up) is so important _before_ coming together to rally for change. (I'm also cynical about the effectiveness of rallies in general -- I think personal relationships between people who want to make change and people who can effect change are what really do things; rallies often have only the effect of making the ralliers feel good about themselves and politicians able to make empty declarations of support.)