Letters Home

Kyle Jones, a former writing tutor now taking classes in Athens, recently shared his latest experiences at the Freedom Plaza:

We arrived in DC on Saturday; I went with two friends of mine (who, like me, are ready to stir things up!).  We stayed in Baltimore with one of my friend's aunt. 

Once we got off the metro and walked into DC, we were ready for anything.  Walking downtown, some guy had a dry erase board around his neck that read: "what can we do to make America better?" (See picture attached).  I, naturally, represented my kind, and proudly wrote, "Workers Unite!"  Lol, as you can see, not much has changed.  As soon as we approached Freedom Plaza, I heard a familiar voice, Ralph Nader.  It was nice to meet him, but the man has terrible hearing, lol.  We talked to many protesters, asked them where they were from, why they were here, etc.  The stories were fantastic, and the overall commraderie of the environment was intoxicating.  

We started our first march around 1:15 p.m., and we were heading to the National Air and Space Museum to protest against a drone exhibit.  As my group approached the museum, twenty police cars flooded the area, a helicopter came out of no where and started circling the museum, and all of a sudden I saw several people near the entrance of the building lying on the ground.  That's right, the Smithsonian security MACED about thirty protesters, they also detained (later arrested) a girl who refused to leave the museum--she was a trooper, she sat inside the museum and recanted the Law Officer's Oath.  (Later, I found out that several protesters were trying to go inside the museum, the Smithsonian security told them to leave, they refused, so they maced them. ) As a result of the "confrontation", the museum was shut down, so we (the protesters) had to deal with angry tourists blaming us for ruining their vacation.  However, the fun didn't stop here. 

We found out that the girl who had been arrested was being held at a nearby police station, thus, we decided to go as a group and demand her release.  We marched to the police station, stood outside, and brought the protest to a location that had plenty of mace to go around!   After about an hour, they released our comrade and she recounted what happened.  She told us that they arrested her for "assaulting a police officer."  They took her to the station, and after she successfully fought her case, they changed the charges to "exciting a crowd."  Shows you how ignorant the police were because we were already excited, lol.  Once we arrived at the police station, they released her and made her pay a fine for the excitement of a crowd charge, but it was a powerful moment for me, and my friends. 

My friends and I are planning to make our way to Wall Street, so hopefully, the protesters keep it up! We'd also like to make our way to Boston and Wisconsin, but only time will tell.  It was a great experience going to Freedom Plaza, and it gave me a feeling I never had before; that is, I felt that for the first time in my life, my ideas came to life, and I was "walking the walk." Despite being miles away, I felt enormously at home.