“I can’t protest”
That’s okay! Protesting is important because it builds our strength and encourages us. I love a big rally because I come away with renewed hope. If you can’t join us, we’ll have to find other ways to help you get looped in!
Here are more than a dozen ways you can get involved on the day of the protest without physically showing up!
How to do it:
- Decorate your lawn with supportive signs.
- Sit in a lawnchair in any public space with a sign.
- Offer to be the protest taxi for your friends (parking is hard!)
- Pass out water and snacks if you’re near the protests
- send a thank you note to someone who protested
- Decorate your car windows with supporting messages.
- Drive by “tootling the horn” at any protesters you see (especially encouraging for small protests.) Some people decorate their cars and make loops!
- If it’s the crowd that bothers you, be the “pregame party” : protest on the approach route for the main event.
- Offer to be the “check-in, check-out” person: folks text to tell you where they are and when they’ll next text. If they miss a check-in, try to call them. If you can’t reach them, it triggers a pre-arranged emergency plan.
- Offer to let someone’s dog out, or check on the neighbor kids.
- if you have a major pre-planned event (e.g. wedding), consider whether you can incorporate an appropriate message of support
- spend the time engaged in some other resistance task. Post it in solidarity.
- Invite protesting friends to drop by for dinner. You get the contagious enthusiasm, they get a hot meal.
- Donate money to the group organizing the protest.
- protest online: change your social media avatar and share and comment on posts
- Write a post about how much you appreciate the people doing the thing you can’t.
- Scan social media through the day and collect the most clever protest signs you can find. Collect them for the next time, when people say “any ideas for a sign?”
- Spend time editing your friends’ protest pictures (e.g. covering stranger’s faces) so they can post them guilt-free.
- Create a protest vest for your dog to wear when you take them for a walk.
- If you work somewhere with flexible dress codes, wear something to flag alliance
- When you see someone (customer, classmate) with a pin or t-shirt that sends a message, thank them for wearing it.
- If you have to work, register support for people with signs however you safely can.
- Plan a post-protest party (have warm things to drink!)
- Offer to store protest signs/art for friends with limited space.
