State lawmakers addressed over 100 people at Wayland’s First Parish Church on Sunday, April 13. State senator Jamie Eldridge and state representatives Carmine Gentile and David Linsky formed a panel to answer questions from area residents, who were concerned about the actions being taken by the current administration.
The event was called “Resist: Action is the Antidote to Fear.” Attendance was almost five times what organizer Teresa Brazen was expecting. When the RSVPs exceeded 80, Brazen relocated from her home to First Parish Church.
“I think the fact that we’re all here, shows that people in this town are ticked off with this administration,” said Wayland resident Dennis Berry. Attendees made it known that anger and frustration was a motivating factor for them along with the question of what actions would be appropriate and effective.
“I recognized that sitting at home doom scrolling isn’t really helping,” said Allie Wilkinson when asked what motivated her to attend.
The first step is raising awareness, said Eldridge. “People don’t know the power they have, that they can really make a difference.” He urged listeners to share their stories – theirs and others. “Some people really don’t believe that the (federal) cuts will impact their quality of life or that real people are losing their jobs.”
Stories like Marc Albert of Sudbury, who is leaving his 30 year career with the National Park Service. “We’ve been told we’re low performing and should be replaced with privatized workers,” he said. “The spirit of public service has been broken by this administration.”
Gentile encouraged outreach to Republican lawmakers as well. “Call their office and tell them you will do everything you can to see them primaried if they continue to support actions against our legal system,” he said. When asked about the value of protesting, such as the recent Hands Off protests across the country, Gentile responded that “people absolutely notice.”
Some attendees were left unsatisfied with what they heard. Paul Grasso of Wayland said he was glad he attended but felt his questions remained unanswered. “How do we protest? I don’t know if there’s a really good answer.”
Many of the attendees had participated in local Hands Off protests, including several Wayland residents like Jean Milburn. “It was similar to the 2017 Women’s March – wonderful and courteous but clear in our message that what is going on in our government is not okay.” Milburn was also a speaker at Resist, representing the national non-profit, Indivisible, which conducts grassroots campaigns to further progressive goals. “Indivisible can give order and structure to your resistance,” she said.
“The facism that led to the Holocaust did not start with mass murders,” said Wayland resident Sabine von Mering, during her speaking segment on historical markers of facism. “It started with the silencing of dissent, mass intimidation and restricting the rights of minorities.” On a hopeful note, she went on to cite academic research that showed how nonviolent protests can have a measurable effect that should not be discounted. She had also participated in the Boston Hands Off protest.
Wayland resident David Cylkowski, who participated in the Vietnam protests, said he was discouraged to see “no one under 30 in the crowd” at Resist, as opposed to the anti-war protests of the 60s which were made up of young people.
Catherine Radmer of Wayland made a similar observation about the Boston Hands Off protest which she attended where she carried a sign saying “Boston – dunking since 1773” (dumping Teslas)
“The demographics of the group skewed very heavily towards older, white people,” said Radmer. “Not limited to people my age but compared to our proportion in the population, we were overrepresented. I think we feel we have less to lose than young people but we may as well use our privilege for good – I don’t blame immigrants and international students for being scared to death of being there but we should show our faces.”
