The protest in Little Rock, AR was productive even though we did not have as many protestors. I was on a major local radio station the night before at 8pm telling listeners the time and place and 100 flyers went out with the major paper the morning of but we didnt get any participation from those. Half the people that showed up were people who emailed me about the event the night before and had just found out about it. We had problems getting a permit from the city Thursday so just went on to the capital and started it. The events coordinator for the capital came out and said he couldn’t give us his opinion on what we were doing but we were welcome anytime and could just call him and tell him we were coming. Even the capitol patrol cop gave us the thumbs up.
However, only about twenty showed up. 3 vietnam veterans, 2 students, 2 other young people, and about 10 adults. We got one lady to come and join us and she stayed all afternoon. It didn’t end up end mattering how many people we had, we got our word out regardless and I think it was extremely successfull. We protested from 2 to 4 in front of the steps of the state capital at an intersection. Tons of people waved, honked, or gave us the peace sign and about 30 people stopped to thank us and get a flyers. We only had a couple people who seemed mad and only one guy came to confront us.
Everyone who joined the protest said that they felt satisfied and enjoyed it and would love to come again. The lady who came to join us was big into politics and knew alot of the politicians at the capital and had contacts with news stations. She said she would definitly join us again and help us big time next time.
Regardless of how many people we had, we got our point across and now know what to do better for next time so that the movement in Arkansas will be stronger. I had had about 100 emails for the protest and about 5 phone calls but they hardly showed up and I got a lot of emails saying that they forgot or couldn’t get off work. Next time they will have more notice and I will have more time to remind them of it. I sent emails out to everyone who had signed the call on your site the day after the protest telling everyone how it went in Little Rock and telling them of the meeting next week. I will be posting our meeting this afternoon on the website. Thank you for organizing this national protest and now that we know how to do it. It will be bigger and better next time.