Why group stands on corner in East Haddam
The sun is out and the wind is biting, but have no fear: The coffee is strong, and there are heated soapstones wrapped in cloth to be used as handwarmers.
Welcome to the third anniversary of Still We Rise’s weekly vigil outside Two Wrasslin’ Cats, a popular coffee shop/community gathering place in East Haddam. The muffins, chai and coffee are on the table, and everyone is welcome.
At 10 a.m. every Saturday — rain, shine, snow, ice, heat — anywhere from six to 30 people stand in front of the restaurant holding signs that say things like “There comes a time when silence is betrayal” and, more recently, “Right matters,” a quote from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, in his recent testimony during the impeachment hearings.
And to think this all sprang from some thoughtless graffiti.
After Donald J. Trump was elected president in 2016, Theresa Govert, an East Haddam resident who’d served in the Peace Corps, put up a sign in town that said, “Dear Muslims, immigrants, disabled, LGBTQ and folks and all people of color, we love you — boldly and proudly. We will endure.” That’s a quote from the activist Jeffrey Shaun King.
Within a day, someone had spray-painted “Trump 2016” over the sign.
Let’s be honest: It was a silly and jarring thing to do.
Nearly 250 people gathered in East Haddam to talk about what should happen next. That a sign supporting people who are often pushed to the fringes would move someone to spray “Trump” across it was only a harbinger of the racism and exclusion that followed, but we were younger then and had no idea.
Several things happened. Govert co-founded a non-profit, Together We Rise, and a group of people started standing at the corner of routes 82 and 151 every Saturday to call attention to social justice issues. The protests are non-violent. In fact, the protesters are encouraged not to speak at all because, because, as organizer Greg Coleman says, speech can be misinterpreted.
In fact, “it will be misinterpreted,” said Coleman.
The First Amendment has been given a workout during the time of Trump. In addition to protests specific to issues such as police brutality, immigration and climate change, residents around the state have been exercising their right with standing weekly protests. Nationally, one of the largest U.S. protests ever measured — the Women’s March — came the day after Trump’s inauguration. One of the next largest marches came the year after, with the 2018 Women’s March. As Coleman says, we’re getting better at protesting injustices. Significant protests against the Vietnam War took a few years to coalesce. Protests against Trump were instantaneous.
Some of East Haddam people are seasoned at this. Coleman’s first memory is as a 5-year-old attending a protest with his parents. He was so small, his father lifted him onto a truck so he could see better, he said.
Others are newer to the fray. The Hincks sisters — Kat and Talia — are in their teens, and they bring the average age of the East Haddam group down by a few decades.
Early on, a few counter-protesters gathered across the street, but they didn’t last. There’s the occasional truck driver who roars by and spews diesel smoke on the protesters, but mostly, they get honks and support and called-out thank-yous. In the end, as hard as it is to wait for it, love usually wins.
The protesters have a strict rule not to respond to either jeers or cheers, but that’s sometimes a hard rule to follow. On a recent Saturday, a passerby rolled down her car window, and called out “Thank you!” One of the protesters yelled back “Thank you!” but Coleman quietly said her name, and she put her gloved hand over her mouth.
“I forgot my sock in the car,” she said, the one she wears in her mouth to keep from talking. Coleman laughed. It’s better to just wave.
The restaurant’s owner, Mark Thiede, says he has lost a little business for his support of the protesters, but not much. He misses the few families who no longer come by, but they’ve been inching back.
Thoughtless graffiti may carry a lot of weight, but love weighs more.
Susan Campbell teaches at the University of New Haven. She is the author of “Frog Hollow: Stories From an American Neighborhood,” “Dating Jesus: Fundamentalism, Feminism and the American Girl” and “Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker.” Her email address is slcampbell417@gmail.com.