sbrobert
May Day is a traditional holiday worldwide to celebrate labor. This year it was an occasion for Americans to stand up for the rights of everyone in our country. And to oppose the lawlessness of Trump and Musk. It followed just a few weeks after the massive “Hands Off” rally on April 5. Here was my article about that. Here are my photos of the May Day events in Santa Barbara.
The event began at 6:30PM on the front steps of the Courthouse. By the time Merlie and I arrived just before 6:30PM the entire area in front of the Courthouse was filled with many hundreds of people.
Myra Paige was one of the organizers and she served as emcee for the gathering. She explained that the event was organized by Indivisible Santa Barbara and a number of other organizations.
The first speaker was the newly elected mayor of Buellton, David Silva. As a married gay man he expressed anger that he is tired of having to justify the existence of his family in the Trump era. All people deserve respect.
Next up was Santa Barbara High School student Ofelia Jarabo Perez. Ofelia said that she is shy about public speaking. But she emphasized the importance of all of us getting outside of our comfort zone and speaking out.
Keith Carlson spoke next. He is Chair of Indivisible Santa Barbara. He talked about growing up with a working father who was in a union. That union job allowed for a middle class life for Keith and his family. Even when his father died, the union provided benefits that meant that he and his mother avoided destitution. He is angry about what Trump, Musk and the Republican Party are doing to try to undermine unions and the middle class in this country.
Jon “Bowzer” Bauman leads the Social Security Works Political Action Committee (PAC). Created in 2017 to elect leaders who will work to expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and lower prescription drug prices for all Americans. He was a musician with Sha Na Na. He used his booming voice to lead the crowd in a chant to keep hands off of Social Security.
He also explained that there is a simple solution to the financial challenge facing Social Security: Raise the tax cap. As it is now, any income above $176,000 is not taxed for Social Security. Raising that limit would not only protect Social Security. It would allow its expansion.
Lawyer Ian Paige has come out of retirement to help fight the lawlessness of the Trump administration. He is also married to Myra Paige. Here is my video of his entire speech. Where he explained just how illegal are the actions of Trump and Musk. And what we need to do to restore our system of Constitutional government.
Santa Barbara City Council member Wendy Santamaria gave the final rousing speech to the crowd. She emphasized the need for solidarity among a list of marginalized groups. She talked of “intersectionality”. She talked of trans people. Solidarity indeed is the key to power. But we should remember the phrase “We are the 99%” from the Occupy movement. We are much more than a bunch of marginalized groups. We are the vast majority and in my view we should make that our emphasis.
At this point the crowd moved out from the Courthouse to State Street along Anapamu Street, past the Library. There was no permit to close the street, so the crowd squeezed onto the sidewalk to get to State Street. Here is my video of the marchers passing in front of the Library. The video runs for over six minutes. The crowd is about 5 people wide. Covering about one row of 5 per second. That adds up to almost two thousand people.
Here is how the crowd looked when they spread out on State Street.
I was impressed that this rally and march had an entirely new set of signs since the April 5 “Hands Off” march. Here are some that caught my eye. Please watch the videos and look at the signs to see more messages.
- Without Due Process It’s Just Kidnapping
- Elon – Liar, Liar Stocks on Fire
- I Don’t Want Canada, Greenland or the Panama Canal/ I want PBS, Social Security and the Smithsonian
- Trump Bankrupted Our Morals and Our Booming Economy
- Country Over Cult
- Trump is a Parasite Not a President
- The Ocean is Rising and So Are We
- Dear Canada: We Hate Him, Too
- Only You can Prevent Fascist Liars (With Smokey Bear)
- DOGE: Dangerous Oligarchs Grabbing Everything
- Our Democracy is Not For Sale
- 100 Days of Stupidity, Revenge, Corruption and Chaos
- From the Fifth Amendment: No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. [Note: It says “No person”. Which means it applies to citizen and non-citizen alike]
- Trump Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things (a humorous reboot of “War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things)
- Fight for Working Families
- When Injustice Becomes Law Resistance Becomes Duty
- Stop Disappearing People
- No Kings/No Oligarchs/No Fascists
- Nothing is More American than Opposing a Tyrant
- ICE = Kidnappers
- Prison Without Due Process is a Concentration Camp
- Stop Pretending Your Racism is Patriotism
- Many “Hands Off Social Security” signs
- Keep the Immigrants – Deport the Racists
- No Dictators/My Father Fought Against Them in WWII
- First they Came For the Journalists – We Don’t Know What Happened After That
- Stop Truth Decay
- And just a simple: NOPE
People are clearly energized to keep protesting and organizing until law, democracy, justice and humanity are restored. Indivisible Santa Barbara has a Facebook page here where you can find out what is happening next. And a link to sign up for their email list.
https://www.facebook.com/indivisiblesantabarbara
I will end with some more photos from May Day.
– Robert Bernstein
From the Fifth Amendment: No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Note: It says “No person”. Which means it applies to citizen and non-citizen alike.
To those who want to round up “illegals” or so-called “anti-semites” and deport them with no hearing: If there is no hearing, no trial or other due process, what keeps this from happening to you? You might say that you are a law-abiding legal citizen. But suppose someone doesn’t like you and they “report” you to Trump’s lawless thugs?
I have an Egyptian immigrant friend who loves everything Trump is doing and supports these mass deportations with no due process. Even if these people are sent to a torture camp in El Salvador with no possibility of ever leaving. He does not seem to grasp that someone like him is a prime target. Anyone could call Trump’s thugs and say that he is a Middle Eastern terrorist. He has an accent and has dark skin. That seems to be all that these thugs need to kidnap people.
I will also point out that most of the millions of immigrants being targeted were either brought here as children. Or they have been here for decades as law-abiding hard-working members of our communities. If they broke an immigration law decades ago, why not have a statute of limitations as for almost every other crime and legalize them?
Yes, we need better border security. But that has nothing to do with how we treat people who are long standing members of our community. Many of my Jewish ancestors in Europe had no legal status. Because there was no way for them to have legal status. They came to this country because it was supposed to be different.
Well said, Robert. Thank you
The other side of the bad coin. No, we do not want people stopped or detained because of their skin color or a hunch. NEITHER do we want sanctuary cities, where numbers of criminals can hide in and put the American citizen in danger. Nor do we want these aforementioned to stay because some local judge deems it can defy executive branch constitutional power, , or SCOTUS, for that matter, decides, that we need to have the impossible task, of having a ‘hearing’ for 5 million people before they are deported. This is ludicrous . These people need to be deported in masse, now. in the same numbers as they were illegally allowed in.
As for Musk and DOGE, not getting the protest. No matter your political allegiance, your taxes be stolen or wasted , by NGO and their friends, with kickbacks to whomever voted for this , should be something EVERYONE should be appalled at.
Chalf, you must be kidding if you think that “efficiency/expediency” is sufficient to deprive people of their rights. I wonder if you will voluntarily get in line for the next “needed: government intervention (maybe forced sterilization of suspected trouble kakers?).
CHUFF – “sanctuary cities, where numbers of criminals can hide in and put the American citizen in danger.”
Sanctuary cities don’t protect violent criminals by their purpose. They protect hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding undocumented immigrants who don’t do anything to put American citizens in danger. Certainly not as much as the hundreds of violent rapists, child molesters and others who were all convicted of assaulting police officers and set free into our communities 100+ days ago.
“having a ‘hearing’ for 5 million people before they are deported. This is ludicrous .”
It’s the law. It’s what our forefathers demanded when they wrote our Constitution. You don’t need to deport non-criminal undocumented immigrants. If you insist on it though, then you follow the law. This isn’t the USSR or North Korea. This is the United States and people have rights here.
If you don’t like undocumented immigrants, how about you figure out how to do their jobs AND pay the TENS OF BILLIONS they pay in taxes to our government each year. Until then, just leave em alone. Most of them (far more than US citizens) aren’t hurting anyone.
If CHUFF really wanted to protect Americans from criminals they would literally advocate for cops driving down any f’ing street and picking up random U.S. citizens–because U.S. citizens commit crimes in the U.S. more often than illegal immigrants.
But CHUFF won’t because CHUFF just loves to hate impoverished brown people.
THANK YOU!
May Day, sometimes referred to as the “Communist’s Christmas”>
Only by ignorant people.