Tabletop Protest by an Off-Duty Resistance Ranger
Sunday, July 6
I am a very big proponent of free speech and legal peaceful protesting as a tool to educate others. At my current park, they have a weekly legal protest next to the park sign, but I’m usually working late so it’s hard to attend. I am an Interpretation/Education Ranger, so I thought I could use my “particular set of skills” on my days off to educate visitors about the plight of the National Park Service, the trauma federal workers are experiencing, and the threat to public lands.
Out of courtesy, I spoke with my immediate supervisor and members of top park management to inform them of my plans and ask for advice. They respected my right to legally protest while off-duty and wished me well. I plan to always give them a heads up about the date/time/location of any Tabletop Protest in the future.
At this week’s protest, I sat in a lawn chair next to a small, flag-draped table that held various protest signs. A few of the signs had QR codes directing visitors to various pages on ResistanceRangers.org for more information. As people walked by, I would politely smile and say hello. If anyone paused at the table, I would ask them if I could answer any questions. This usually led to great conversations and opportunities to get the word out about topics I’m passionate about.
What gave you the idea to start an ask-me-anything style protest and what do you hope to gain from it?
The thing that surprised me the most was the universal good vibes. I received lots of thumbs up and had a few deep conversations. Fortunately, I was in a location where thousands of people walk by every day, so even if a visitor may not have agreed with my signage, they kept it to themselves and didn’t harass me.
Did you have any conversations that surprised you? What were they?
Was there anything about preparing for and executing the event that scared you?
Because I am a seasonal ranger and only have a couple of suitcases worth of gear, securing the necessary supplies (folding table/sign holders/flag) was something I was worried about initially. Luckily, when I reached out to other people in the community, they jumped at the opportunity to lend me what I needed for a good cause.
Additionally, I was a little concerned about park management’s reaction which is why I had a conversation with several of them leading up to the protest. Fortunately, they had no problems with the idea as long as I did it off duty, not in uniform, and in a designated legal free speech location that didn’t block access to doors and stairs.
I did have some trepidation about push back from visitors, so I arranged to have a silent legal observer nearby to start filming if things got weird. I never came close to needing them, but it felt nice to have back up just in case.
I plan to do Tabletop Protests at least once a week on my off days. My hope is that my example will encourage my friends and coworkers to have Tabletop Protests on one of their days off, too.
I’m in the process of creating a Tabletop Protest Kit so people can replicate the idea wherever they live. Essentially, it will be a list of items I used during my protest, samples of signs that I made to spark conversation with passing visitors, and tips I learned through trial and error. I plan to have the kit ready to go in time for the next Resistance Ranger Green & Gray Retort newsletter.
How long do you plan to keep up your Tabletop Protest project?
The biggest win for me was that I actually DID it. I had been planning to do it for weeks, but I kept finding excuses to push it back. Honestly, I think I was putting it off because I didn’t feel knowledgeable about all the topics affecting the National Park Service, federal workers, and Public Lands.
In the end, I simply told my own story: I’m a frozen federal employee who, due to the current administration, lives in a constant state of anxiety and had to sell my home because it’s hard to pay a mortgage without a steady job.
I also talked about something very near and dear to me: the fact that hundreds of National Park Service websites are being stripped of their history because the current administration is against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Something is profoundly wrong when, without permission or approval from NPS leadership, Harriet Tubman’s image and quotes were erased from the NPS webpage related to the Underground Railroad. Even though her contributions have since been restored, countless other histories have still been erased. You can’t learn from history if you erase it–but I guess that’s the point of these modern day book burnings.
I would encourage others who are interested in having their own Tabletop Protests to tell their own stories of how they have been personally, negatively affected by the current administration and to pick one or two topics that they have done research on because it personally gets them all fired up.
It was amazingly cathartic to feel like I was DOING something and educating people about things that matter most to me.
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What’s your biggest “win” from your first event?
