I was almost too lazy to miss this.
A coworker posted it in our social (off-work) listserv. We are a global-health research organization so we do fit the broad definition under “Public Health”. The cause is definitely right, but healthcare worker protest? How many will show up? They’re too busy and they work shifts. Plus, 9am on a Saturday looked way too early to me.
Also, I was starting to think that too many rallies and marches in Covid-19 might be bad for us. But I argued about it with my 21-year-old activist son last night, and he shred my lame apathetic-old-geezer arguments to pieces.
So today around 7 when I realized I’m not asleep, it was super-clear I’m going.
Around 9:10 I arrived at Harborview, Puget Sound’s main trauma hospital on a hill 1km above downtown Seattle. Just in time to see the front of the march down to City Hall, right before it started.
Wow! I thought there would be a few hundred people, tops. This looked right away like thousands.
Right as I got there I bumped into sweet amazing Ronnie, a old comrade from Jewish Voice for Peace (well, she’s a comrade, much of the time I was as lazy there as I was in my plans last night). She moved out of Seattle years ago, to Lopez Island where she’s an EMT. She and her 3 colleagues came over. If you don’t know Puget Sound geography, that’s quite a few hours’ travel by water and land. “When did you leave?” They came last night and slept in their vehicle at a friend’s back yard. And they had to maintain distancing during the entire march, otherwise it’s a 14-day quarantine for them back on the generally covid-free island. But still, they felt they had to come, and most of the community there supported them.
So we waited across the intersection from the main mass of people, to join the tail of the march where it’s less dense. But the march kept coming. 15 minutes, 30 minutes. I got up higher (on a recycling container) to get a better vantage point.
It took 45 minutes until the tail came by and we could join it. I’m a numbers guy; I guesstimated the crowd at 15-20 thousand. Whoever dishes out public estimates (the police? Hm, surely objective on this) said 7000, but it was certainly way over 10000. And surely, by the time we set out, quite a few of the marchers had already reached City Hall.
About the marchers: well, of course, 100% with masks. Amazing diversity, many in their hospital/clinic gowns. A few students in their graduation gowns, I guess this is better than the original stadium commencement which won’t happen this year anyway. Tons of young people, lots of people who brought their kids. Older distinguished doctors and nurses with white hair (or no hair). People from all walks of life.
Once again, healthcare workers showed they are heroes. They have real heart. The status quo is hoping that everyone will turn a page and go back to “minding their own business”. Our region’s healthcare workers said today, not on our watch.
Ronnie and I and a few other “old-time radicals”, used to demonstrations anywhere from 5 to several hundred in size, demonstrations that feel like (and are treated like) a negligible sliver of society, were marveling at the views: “These are Normies!” she said, just plain regular, often apolitical people who’ve had enough. This is the silent majority taking its stand.
We bypassed the main march one block to the right, in order to get to the square to hear some of the speeches. Most speakers were black and the speeches were amazing. These were not professional politicians or serial march-organizers just tossing out slogans. These were health workers who don’t bullshit around. The main speaker, a doctor (I believe her name was Dr. Williams — yes, Dr. Estell. J. Williams, surgeon. Thank you Vios!), read out a list of concrete demands from local government, prefacing it with “It might sound radical to some of you”. No it didn’t; it was a super-wonky, realistic, down-to-earth roadmap for how to change direction on community-police relations and power balance, and on black lives.
We finally dispersed feeling that yes, perhaps this time we can help bring about real change. This was not venting about Drumpf or G.W. Bush. This was about concrete changes that our elected local officials directly accountable to us, can do something about right now.
About half of us strolled afterwards in an informal continuation of the march, north through the heart of downtown (according to Seattle Times many continued as far as Seattle Police East Precinct HQ on Capitol Hill, where there was a somewhat more tense second rally). I walked with with Abie, another JVP veteran who’s also a global health colleague, as well as with Ronnie and her Lopez Island pals, who — ever so diligent — put on face shields before reaching City Hall, then found a safe elevated parking lot a block away to watch the talks from. Through downtown and back east onto Capitol Hill, everywhere people honked in support; coffeeshops offered water.
You might ask where the police was. There were relatively few of them, and they mostly kept far out of sight. The march organizers self-policed the traffic arrangements for the most part. And it was so much better this way.
I feel hopeful today. I hope the big DC march ends well.
UPDATE: I have to paste some additional insight and info from this amazing comment by Vios:
Was it worth it to me to attend knowing the risk to myself? -Absolutely.
Was it worth it to attend knowing the risk to others if I became a carrier? That is a hard one. I do not want to cause anyone harm.
What you should know:
1) This march was attended by some the best trained COVID front line workers in the country. They knew the risk and came out to support their Black colleagues anyway.
2) This event was organized and initiated by People of Color at UW Medicine.
3) This event was attended by some of the best Infectious Disease researchers in the world.
4) This event was attended by middle class to upper middle class health care workers that make between $90K (nurses) and $250K (doctors)...in other words quietly powerful citizens.
5) The numbers posed by the diarist are correct (I think) 15k to 20k. Not just UW Medicine but health care workers from all over Seattle and Western Washington.
6) The follow-up actions related to the demands will change the University of Washington forever.
An institution with around 40,000 employees (Wikipedia if off on this data point I think); 47,000 students; and an annual budget of $7.84 Billion. UW Medicine alone is massive with 4 hospitals in Seattle and training sites in Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. www.uwmedicine.org/...
7) In short: This event was a bonafide BFD...I am so lucky (and proud) to be a part of the health care community in Western Washington (even if I am only a low level bureaucrat — it is an honor to serve).
Regarding Covid-19 risk etc., which definitely came up in the comments. Vios left after 45 minutes due to this concern, but seems supportive of the rally overall. They were in the main mass of people during the march, while I was lucky to come slightly late and have very little crowding until I took some on during the talks at the end.
As to myself, like I wrote above, my own opinions on this have shifted over the past day or two.
But this feels like a historical moment. Repeatedly during the almost 18 years since we moved here from Israel, whenever I’ve learned of how badly American society is dispossessing Black citizens (and other groups, of course; but with Blacks it seems particularly obscene) I was shocked and shamed almost senseless.
- Mass incarceration beyond belief, happening relatively recently at a supposedly “post-racial” point in time — and then accepted as a “New Normal”.
- Police brutality.
- Payday loans.
- Unacceptable gaps in education.
- The biases, hostility, and discrimination faced by those who still manage to work their way up through this minefield.
The list is endless, and we are centuries overdue in our common obligation to eradicate it.
Y’all (or most of y’all) know all this by heart. Well, are we going to let another few decades go by wasted? We must seize this moment.
If I’m healthy enough and trust myself and co-marchers to be careful (both on Covid-19 and on provoking police violence), then I should also volunteer my body to help move the moment forward.
But different people have different health and risk considerations. I completely respect that.
Peace.