Peoples art is growing in power, fueled by opposition to President trump. What is remarkable about the 150-city demonstrations that fanned out over the US on Holy Saturday was the individualism on display. Virtually every photo of these widespread events suggested that most people did their own artwork and expressed themselves in their own words. There was no monolithic gathering of folk all carrying the same sign and chanting the same thing.

Improv on the streets

Most remarkable though is the range of expressions, from what might well be considered museum-worthy pop art creations to signs with almost no text that speak many thousands of words, Here from Twitter Moments is a small selection of the memorable output of Americans yesterday, April 15, Tax Day, Holy Saturday.

Real welfare queen

Among thousands of handwritten and drawn posters, one stood out. It describes Donald Trump as the real welfare queen, inverting an expression which has been aimed by the right wing at the poor. Among other things, the poster notes the high cost of a round of golf for Mr. Trump ($3 million per golf trip) and a price of $450,000 for each death inflicted by the Trump bombing of ISIS fighters in the cave area of Afghanistan.

What democracy looks like

The visual panorama conveys more than just the presence of wit and creativity.

It signals the advent of a nonviolent form of mass movement in which one is not simply a face in a crowd, but an individual who chooses to be with these people at this time. This has none of the driven characters of past demonstrations. This is a happy, even exuberant, expression of hope in the human adventure.

Trade a Pepsi for your returns

The whole thing on a torn piece of cardboard

Why does one need a political platform when the essential means of achieving basic change can be said in three words?

Our politics comes to how we create our economy. The more we benefit from it, the less we are willing to admit we can change it. But change it we can.

The Berkeley footnote

It is good that the Berkeley protest that developed into violence was the only such event yesterday. The circumstances in Berkeley were very different than the effort that won the day for nonviolence. Two relatively small groups faced off under the eye of riot-geared police who did not try to separate them. This was in contrast to an event that started with a tweet and proceeded to become a moving global testament to the potential of peaceful action to achieve the changes we desire.
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