{"id":38991,"date":"2025-01-23T12:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T20:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38991"},"modified":"2025-01-23T12:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T20:19:11","slug":"inauguration-protests-beyond-the-big-cities-a-small-community-in-west-marin-fights-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/23\/inauguration-protests-beyond-the-big-cities-a-small-community-in-west-marin-fights-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Inauguration protests beyond the big cities: A small community in West Marin fights back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coast Miwok Tribal Council, Main Street Moms, Legal Aid of Marin, the Dance Palace, and others rally against deportations and the Trump Agenda in Pt. Reyes Station<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By CHRISTOPHER D. COOK<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JANUARY 21, 2025 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         The winter sky above Point Reyes Station on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day\u2014and inauguration day for the convicted felon president\u2019s second tour of American carnage\u2014was a sharp, deep solid blue, sparkling and cloudless. After days of fog and chilly gray, the winter sun shot through strong beaming rays of heat and light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of hitting the beaches or barbecues on this sunny holiday, the Point Reyes community showed up in force, a few hundred protesters gathering to stand together in a time marked by fearmongering and division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rural West Marin turned out in force Monday\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Trump launched his presidency surrounded by Big Tech and other corporate interests, then signed executive orders<\/a> cracking down on immigrants, shredding equity and anti-discrimination protections for transgender people, and gutting climate action, hundreds of thousands protested in cities and towns across the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Point Reyes Station rally, organized by West Marin Community Services, emphasized immigrant rights and community solidarity under the banner of \u201cWest Marin Standing Together\u2014Una Comunidad Unida.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rally was a community affair, with the crowd seated on hay bales and folding chairs and standing in a broad semicircle after sharing breakfast burritos, pastries, fruit, and coffee donated by local restaurants and cafes, and the town grocery store. Groups supporting the rally included the Coast Miwok Tribal Council, Main Street Moms, Legal Aid of Marin, the Dance Palace, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amate Perez, founder and director of the Latinx Racial Equity Project, told the crowd  that the coming attacks on immigrants must be met with broad solidarity and recognition of previous civil rights struggles. \u201cWe can\u2019t demand immigrant rights without also demanding land back for our Indigenous brothers and sisters and reparations for our Black brothers and sisters,\u201d Perez said. From MLK to Cesar Chavez, \u201cour struggles are really one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know I get to exist in the US because Black people organized,\u201d Perez added. \u201cWe must be grateful to the Black liberation movement,\u201d she said, noting that the Black Panthers picketed Safeway<\/a> to support farmworkers in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perez urged, \u201clet\u2019s build deep solidarity and a movement committed to advancing the rights of all of us\u2026all of us who have been affected by colonialism, racism, and economic exploitation\u2026 Black workers, women, immigrants, and Indigenous workers continue to be oppressed\u2026 yet they rely on our labor every day\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest comes as President Trump promises mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and Point Reyes area farmworkers are\u00a0facing displacement<\/a>\u00a0and meager housing options amid a major settlement that will shut down livestock ranches in the Point Reyes National Seashore. The controversial National Park Service deal,\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0\u201chammered out in secret and underwritten by The Nature Conservancy\u201d\u2014without any input from farmworkers\u2014will shutter livestock ranches in the national park and leave about 90 farmworkers without a place to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farmworker families are \u201cafraid of what\u2019s going to happen, that they\u2019re going to lose their jobs and lose their housing,\u201d said Alma Sanchez, program manager at West Marin Community Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Latinx immigrants face discrimination and fear every day, Sanchez noted, \u201cwith an anti-immigrant administration we feel it even more. We fear that we are unwelcome in [Trump\u2019s] eyes. We hope he recognizes how we contribute to this country, the economy, the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanchez said the MLK Day rally \u201cmade us more united as a community,\u201d by bringing together immigrant families, Indigenous communities, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few speeches and a little sing-along music, the crowd marched in silence down Point Reyes Station\u2019s main throughfare, Route 1, then on a stone path into the Giacomini Wetland area, winding through a thick green grassy meadow, then forming a large oval of about 200 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, the group was invited to pass around a sacred bird feather and share a brief word about what they love and hope to protect in the Trump years. The moment felt powerful and important, one could sense the somber mood but also the strength and vitality of the protesters standing in this giant oval, in a wetland meadow in Point Reyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the words people shared:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImagination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConnection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFamilies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCo-existence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGenerosity and reciprocity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are all in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLove is always more powerful than fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOpen hearts, open minds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCourage and joyful resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHousing is a right for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUn corazon, una familia, una comunidad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coast Miwok Tribal Council, Main Street Moms, Legal Aid of Marin, the Dance Palace, and others rally against deportations and the Trump Agenda in Pt. Reyes Station By CHRISTOPHER D. COOK JANUARY 21, 2025 (48hills.org)          The winter sky above Point Reyes Station on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day\u2014and inauguration… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38992,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991\/revisions\/38992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}