The protests MUST continue

Last week, two encounters with coworkers at the plastics factory that employs me made it personally crystal clear why the worldwide protests against the brutality shown by America's police forces MUST continue.

Last Sunday, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert issued a 72-hour curfew in light of the Big O being one of the many American cities holding demonstrations not only against police brutality, but also against the militarization of this country's police forces...and against vigilante brutality. In the curfew, people couldn't go out between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM...unless they had vital jobs. (The company I work at makes, among other things, personal protective equipment...no, not coronavirus masks, but the masks worn by assembly-line employees at dairy factories and by soldiers.)

So...on 6-1-2020, as I got off my second-shift job at 11:00 PM and was heading for my car to drive home, a supervisor from another plant within the same building headed for his own car to go to his own home.

I held the door for him (just trying to be polite, that's all)...and he started talking about the local curfew.

And then he praised this country's chief White House occupant, talking about how "honest" this occupant is...and how this one-time reality-TV show host "says what's on his mind."

Guess what? 

Just because the former host of NBC's The Apprentice says what's on his mind doesn't make what's on his mind cool...especially when he declares war on the nation's own citizens by vowing to sic the military on protesters if governors don't do his bidding and "dominate the streets."

That's dictatorial talk...no ifs, no maybes, no buts.

Sorry, folks. The way I see it, we started having a dictator here the afternoon of 1-20-2017.

A couple of nights ago, a fellow second-shift employee of mine at the same plant I work at weighed in on the continuing protests.

She wondered when the demonstrators would get off the streets "so that people can get on with their lives." What's more, she wondered what good the protests are doing.

So I told her.

Not only did I tell this fellow machine operator that the demonstrations have, at long last, gotten the attention of some corporate leaders (one of the leaders took to the electronic billboard at 72nd and Pacific Sts. here in O and loaded a message: "We Need Each Other")...I told her I'm glad the protests continue to take place.

The sign on the east facade of Omaha's Do Space (at 72nd and Dodge Sts., in a building that previously housed a Borders book store) proclaimed: "BLACK LIVES MATTER."

By the way...some of the protests here in Omaha happened at 72nd and Dodge.

Hours before second shift began that day (6-5-2020), NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement admitting that the league was wrong in the way it's been handling player protest ever since San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick went to one knee in 2016.

Eleven days after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis cop named Derek Chauvin (with an assist from four other members of Minneapolis' Supposedly Finest), Goodell finally gave the okay for the NFL's players to speak out and peacefully protest.

What's more, he stated: "We, the National Football League, believe Black lives matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country."

Goodell also admitted that "Without Black players, there would be no National Football League." 

Now, Roger...if you and the league's 32 team owners get rid of that kneeling ban, I'll be glad to get back to spending Sunday afternoons and evenings (and any Monday night or Thursday night I can get off during the season) watching NFL action.

And what about US Sen. Willard Mitt Romney (R-UT), the most recent Republican to lose a presidential election, marching with protesters in the nation's capital?

We'll see what happens in the days/weeks/months/years to come...but Romney's and Goodell's actions are a start. So are those taken by corporate bigwigs everywhere.

So if you're still upset because the protests, as this fellow machine operator of mine put it, prevent people from going "on with their lives," let me tell you something:

Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and too damned many others weren't allowed to get on with their own lives.

Vigilantes took it upon themselves to snuff Martin's and Arbery's lives out.

FOR NOTHING.

And I'd like to ask you something:

Do you REALLY believe in freedom for all to live their lives peacefully...to go about their everyday business just as you do?

Do you REALLY believe people have a right to petition this country's government...especially this current garbage fire of a government, one built on hatred and bigotry?

 

Yep...It's GOING to Happen Here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue Area!

 That's right...Luke Jerram's world famous "Play Me, I'm Yours" art exhibit is coming to America's 43rd largest city...the very same burg from which this blog originates. 

The Omaha Creative Institute (1516 Cuming St., 68102) has teamed up with the "PMIY" folks to put colorfully-decorated street pianos in public places all over the area...something Luke launched in 2008 in Birmingham, England (and all of that with the express hope of just getting people to interact with each other). 

And it doesn't matter what your skill level is when it comes to playing the piano. Whether you're a concert pianist, all thumbs at the 88s, or anyplace in between...it's all about interacting with other people.  

Since that first exhibit, Jerram and Co. have taken "Play Me" almost all around the world. It's been to cities such as Sao Paulo, Brazil; Barcelona, Spain; Pecs, Hungary; Toronto, ON, Canada; London, Bath, and Cambridge, England; and Sydney, Adelaide, and Perth, Australia...to say nothing of American cities like New York City, NY; Cincinnati, OH; San Jose, CA; Grand Rapids, MI; Austin, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; and what previously was the smallest of America's "Play Me, I'm Yours" cities- Salem, OR. (Oregon's capital city had 156,244 people in it during 2011, the year before it- along with LA and SLC- boasted its own set of painted pianos.) 

This year's very first "PMIY" city, Monterey, CA (one of five cities signed up thus far in 2013; all but one of the cities are here in the US), has fewer people than Salem. This city of 28,246 just got through showing off its painted pianos...and that's something also about to happen next month in Munich, Germany (and about to be done in two other American cities besides Omaha, NE: Cleveland, OH and a city that really could use that lift right now...Boston, MA).

The Big O gets its turn during the late August-early September period.

But it can't happen without the pianos themselves.

So...if you'd like to donate (or know of somebody who'd like to donate) an old upright, an old spinet, and/or even an old grand (and/or if you know of a warehouse in which the pianos can be worked on and- yes- prettied up), call or email Natalie Shaw, OCI's development coordinator. She can be reached at 402 669-9807 and at natalie@omahacreativeinstitute.org.  

And to get the real lowdown on past, present, and future "Play Me, I'm Yours" exhibitions, just log on to www.streetpianos.com. 

I'm fired up about "Play Me" coming to Nebraska's largest city. How about you?