Photo from Twitter.

Yesterday, I attended a protest to demand ICE get out of LA. The protests were 100% peaceful. Participants abided by crosswalks, were never at any point blocking traffic, and did not antagonize anybody. People were giving speeches, reading poetry, and playing music in a public park.

As of the writing of this, the First Amendment is still on the books in the United States. Though, nothing can be taken for granted at this point. I mean, hell, a week ago the President ordered an illegal attack on LA, and nothing’s been done.

But again, to reiterate: Nobody was blocking traffic, nobody was in the street, there were children there with their parents, and the closest thing to a “disturbance” that I personally encountered were participants offering me free fruit and water.

The LAPD showed up in cars and helicopters and they completely blocked off Gaffey, and even blocked off a side street leading up to it. This caused a bottle neck that some people got caught up in for hours. There was no reason for it. The statement given by the LAPD: It was for the safety of the protest participants. Nonsense.

The first action of the cops was to block off the street and approach the protest itself. We were all taken aback by their sudden confrontation as it was a completely peaceful protest. People begin chanting “We are Peaceful”. People on the microphone at the park reminded the LAPD that there were children there. One older gentleman decided to approach the LAPD, maybe to attempt to give them them the peace of mind that they didn’t need to block off the street. This is how that went down:

After several moments, those particular LAPD officers backed up because the protesters made it clear that we weren’t looking for confrontation and had every right to be there. More cops showed up and they completely blocked off Gaffey. Again, there was absolutely no reason for this. This had nothing to do with the safety of the protesters. People were on sidewalks or in a park. The only presence making the situation less safe was the police themselves. Don’t take my word for it, take a look…

Going bigger picture here: I’m the first to admit we can’t peaceful protest our way to revolution. I wish we could, but that just ain’t reality. However, the toolkit for change is vast, and peaceful protest is among the tools (it just can’t be the only one).

Peaceful protest is catharsis, mobilizing, and allows a community to know it isn’t alone. The entire time I was there yesterday, we were greeted with honks and cheers of approval. Fist pumps, peace signs, and ‘thank yous.’ Peaceful protest is the antidote to despair and apathy, and that’s not a bad thing, especially in times like these.

The roads being blocked off was to antagonize the protest and limit its visibility. It’s one tool in the propaganda control toolbox.

It worked. At least one community event was canceled yesterday evening, and they canceled the Friday Farmer’s Market for today (I don’t get it. I’ve seen plenty of signs against ICE, but still haven’t seen one against vegetables).

Stay safe out there.

Robin Waite is an author, mentor, and coach. I came across Robin’s book, Take Your Shot, and I absolutely loved it.

It used story to teach the principles of turning your passion project into a sustainable living. Robin narrated the audiobook himself. I couldn’t stop listening to it. It used golf as a back drop, best part, I don’t even like golf!

I decided I needed to learn more about Robin and his story. We talk about overcoming hardships, building a rewarding life, and what it means to be truly happy.

Robin managed to turn incredibly frightening health news into an opportunity. Learn how he did it.

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It was cloudy. June gloom was in full swing. Lucy was chatty, as was often the case on a weekend morning. Once I began stirring, I was awake. Adrenaline was pumping, I knew it was time to greet the day, it was Opening Night of Termination Fee.

Yesterday, the President ordered in attack on my city of residence, Los Angeles. Yes, it was an attack. No, it was not nor at any point was it a riot. It was a protest and a peaceful one. People were defending their neighbors. The situation was under control, and even the Mayor, and Governor echoed that sentiment. Trump was not satisfied. So, he ordered an attack on Los Angeles. Protesters were attacked, a journalist was hospitalized.

I checked online and saw that ICE was allegedly in Point Fermin. I decided I’d avoid heading that way. I also saw that a beach cleanup was happening at Cabrillo. I try to attend the beach cleanups as often as I can, though sometimes I don’t find out when they’re happening until last minute. I knew with opening night I wasn’t going to be able to participate today, so I grabbed my litter-gitter on the way out the door. I figured, I won’t be able to hangout and clean up for the entire afternoon shift, but I’ll at least grab a few things on my walk. I actually didn’t see the clean up crew when I was there so maybe they were starting a little later then usual. I picked up a few pieces of litter and put it in the nearest trashcan. Was the beach spotless? Of course not. But, there was a little less litter than there was a few minutes ago. Something’s something.

I’m lucky to live in a neighborhood that is relatively safe. There’s a strong sense of community, people look out for one another, people are not looking for trouble, they just want to protect their neighbors.

The other side of that, I live on the edge. Quite literally. San Pedro is the where the harbor of LA is. It’s that little piece of land that sticks out a bit in the map of LA. If you’re looking to go west the only destination is the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes the bad weird finds its way to the edge. You’re not sure if they’re in the neighborhood or just wondered in from somewhere else, but either way, it’s there. Like most places, the darkness of the present day United States has seeped in. There’s a certain anger here that didn’t exist until recently. I travel enough to know such a thing is not exclusive to San Pedro. The other day while walking back from the beach, a guy was flooring it down the street, blowing through stop signs, nearly hitting multiple pedestrians and other cars, greeting anyone they came near with a middle finger. A couple months ago, I accidentally cut a guy off in traffic. Accidental, my fault, I braked and made the folded hands sign for forgiveness. The person then cut me off on purpose, and waved a gun. These are heightened times and most of us usually aren’t our best selves in traffic.

One of the saddest things I’ve seen online in response to what’s happening LA are the people cheering it on and proudly declaring that “this is what we voted for.” Really? You want armed forces to attack your fellow citizens? That’s what you want? You realize that never ends well for anyone, right?

Anyway, all of this was on my mind getting ready for opening night. Part of me even felt guilty. Here I was doing theater while the city’s pretty much under attack. That thought cleared out pretty quickly. I mean, hell, it’s not like I just went to a movie or something, it was opening night of a play that we had been rehearsing for nearly a year. The show had been scheduled for months.

On that, opening night was incredible. Sold Out. Standing Ovation. Thank you so so so so freaking much to everyone who came out. You mean the world to us. It was cathartic, it was a release.

For me, and I hope for everyone else, it was a reminder that we can’t let them take our art, our culture, our community, and most importantly, our neighbors. In times like these, we need to band together and remember that we are all we have.

This country is like Espresso, it’s not meant to have ICE.

Termination Fee opens Sunday, June 8 at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. As of the writing of this, if ya want tickets to opening night, get ‘em now, cuz they are going fast and almost out. Our little team has been rehearsing for months, we’ve been fine tuning this thing and we’re ready to share it with the world.

I wrote this script as a feature film. Then, we did a read through and decided it could be done on stage. So, we decided to do both. After our run at the Fringe, we’ll start shooting the feature. The two scripts are slightly different due to the different mediums, so if you see one you’ll still wanna see the other :)

On behalf of myself, Sara Kay Godot, Andrew Saxena, Michael Blaha, Lee Costello, and Fringe Management, we hope to see ya at the Fringe, LA! And for everyone not in SoCal, look out for the feature film next year!

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Peter Joseph is a filmmaker, author, musician, and activist. Years ago, he released the Zeitgeist documentary for free online. He went viral before there was a term for such a thing.

He spawned a movement that had chapters all over the world. He’s released other films and books since. I was fortunate enough to cross paths with him a few times over the years, and we’ve kept in touch.

He’s a fairly private guy, so it was cool to learn more about the man behind the work.

We cover his origin story, film, creation, and of course, we get his take on the state of affairs and where we’re headed as a species!

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