By day Ariel Fox works on the Tavis Smiley on PBS website. The rest of her time is spent running her small company Sticker Sisters where she makes stickers, t-shirts and other goodies with encouraging messages for girls.
As I was sitting at work yesterday afternoon, I started to get tweets and text messages about rallies against the newly passed Proposition 8. "Queers and allies in opposition to Prop 8 mobilizing in West Hollywood," one message declared.
A few years ago, if I'd learned about a rally I would have had to jump on the phone to ask: "Who's going?" "Can I park at your house?" "Do you have signs?" "Want to grab dinner afterwards?"
But all I had to do was take a look at my friends' Facebook updates to see things like, "need to get ready for the rally against Prop 8 tonight. 7pm WeHo." A few IMs and text messages later, all my questions were answered.
Information about the gatherings spread fast. With just a few hours notice, thousands of people had gathered in West Hollywood to listen to speakers and chant for equality. But the crowd wasn't satisfied being confined to the area of San Vicente Blvd that had been blocked off for the rally. People wanted to take their signs and chants to the streets.
When I arrived, the police were successfully steering a small group of people out of the traffic on Santa Monica Blvd and back to the designated area. But people in the crowd started spreading the word that at 9pm everyone should "take to the streets." A couple of my friends set off on that march--sending text messages along the way about their progress.
I stayed to listen to a few more speakers and then set out with the next wave. We hiked briskly up San Vicente Blvd. There was hardly any police presence and drivers were confused, but mostly patient as the sea of people took over the street. The march continued on the Sunset Strip with people hanging their heads out of windows and coming outside of clubs to cheer on the marchers.
The crowd split off into a couple of different marches with some people heading further east, others going into Beverly Hills, and I went with a large group back to our starting point. I saw people marching past midnight and people were already making plans for a follow up rally outside the Mormon Temple in West LA the next afternoon.
Even though I wasn't able to go to the rally at the Mormon Temple today, I was able to track it online and still feel involved. I've been checking out photos that are already being posted on Flickr, newspaper websites, and blogs. I've also been following local news stations that are streaming footage from their helicopters live above the demonstration. Unlike regular local news, this footage doesn't have any commentary. But I'm getting plenty of commentary from regular people who are on the scene via Twitter, which makes me feel more like I'm there. After this experience and seeing the impact of the online presence for the Obama campaign, I'm seeing just how well political movements and the web can work together.
The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user leh4. It was used with their permission.
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I'm old, so I barely know what a tweet is. I hope it helps, but I am waiting for the "social media" that makes us stop being bigots.