I always believed that people that planned rallies had tons of experience. All the marches and rallies I have ever attended were put on by organizations or groups of people, not individuals. I was proven wrong when a couple weeks ago, I got throw into planning a march in less than a week.
Bernie Sanders stays very active with his community of followers and often gives us things to do to help change the world. On Sunday January 15, Bernie called for a day of resistance against the senate repelling the ACA. The affordable care act gives health care to millions of Americans that previously did not have health care. If repelled, thousands will lose their health care and even more will die due to effects. Due to the senate discussing this, Bernie called for each major city in every state to rally together to tell our states that we will not stand for this.
I found out about this a week before the rally was supposed to happen. I had only seen one Facebook event made but the person that made the event did not make it shareable. Several people started asking me if I knew of a protest so I decided to make my own Facebook event so I could get the information out to everyone. So that Sunday night I made a Facebook event, shared it with maybe 30 people and then went to sleep.
The next morning I woke up to 20 Facebook notifications, all about this rally. Because I had created this event, everyone now assumed that I was planning it. At first, I started freaking out because I had never done anything like this. After a while, I came to the conclusion that surely it couldn’t be that hard so I decided to give it a go and plan it. I shortly found out, I was wrong.
The next couple of days were filled with lots of Facebook messages and phone calls from strangers offering help. I called several people in the Atlanta area to try and get a permit and talk to the police to make sure everything was legal. We decided to meet at the capitol and have a couple of speakers and just stay there. Every day the number of people interested in this event rose, which lead me to realize that we could not just stand still, with that many people, we would have to move.
So the day before the march, 800 were expected to come. I had partnered up with a local Atlanta activist and an Atlanta doctor so that our forces would be stronger. We decided we would meet in front of the CNN building and then march to the capitol where we would give a presentation. The only problem we encountered with all of this was the fact that we had no permit and no permission from the police. The Sunday morning of the march, I read through every law I could to make sure that I would not get arrested. I played the situation over and over in my head to make sure I had not forgotten anything.
I woke up Sunday morning, went to an early morning breakfast meeting to talk about what we do post-election and then headed to Atlanta. I got there and was so surprised to see at least twenty people on the corner of CNN holding signs protesting healthcare. I stated to feel more at ease knowing that I would not be the only one marching around today. As time went on, more people started to show up and the doctor that I worked with told the crowd how terrible it would be to repel the ACA. Medical students walked over from Grady hospital to tell the stories of their patients. They shared that without the ACA, many of them will not be able to afford their medication, resulting in death. As we prepared to march, several people came to the front and told their stories on how the ACA will help them. The best part was when State Senator Vincent Fort showed up to give up some inspirational worlds before we took the streets.
We took the streets and marched all the way to the Georgia State Capitol. Around 200 people showed up to support and that many people on the street can grab some attention. We made several local news station and made Atlanta notice us.
I am forever grateful for this experience and the people that I meet. The amount of people that reach out to help me that didn’t even know me gave me the hope I needed. I could not have done this without the love and support from all of my friends. I encourage everyone to please get involved. All it takes is reaching out and going to events. Sometimes if you just put yourself out there to help, you end up planning a rally.