Desire For Self- Expression (and joy)

Around five o'clock yesterday a vehicle pulled up to the loading zone in front of the Florence building on the corner of Front and Higgins in Missoula Montana and and red shirted eye double W's (IWW) pulled out a "soapbox" and bullhorn and quickly got to work.
"Fellow workers!" shouted the first of what would be a two hour stream ofboth scripted and impromptu speakers and exhortators, poets and orators. 99 years ago, on this very corner, the idea that Americans had the right to free speech was first tested when Wobbly organizers (Elizebeth Gurley Flynn, Frank Little, Jack Jones, St. John among others) stood up and began to tell assorted loggers, miners and laborers that it was time to "dump the bosses off their backs"!They were arrested en masse and the call went out for workers to converge. With the jails packed and an endless line of "speakers" waiting to get arrested the business leaders of the town, tired of paying to house ,feed and try these "rebels" changed the ordinance banning sidewalk speech.

Of course we had no idea what kind of reception we might recieve here in modern day, post-industrial Missoula, from the citizenry or the officials charged with maintaining order but it turned out the populous had plenty to say and the cops remembered the lesson of 1909. As Wobs railed against the deprivations of capitalism, environmentalists talked of degredation, others spoke of war and oil and Columbia and the price of rice, ragged vagabonds gave the assembled a piece of their mind, rappers rapped. Folks stood against the building with their mouths open, What Was This? Was It Spectacle? Public Space Reclaimed? A Demonstration? They would come up and ask "can I speak... about anything?" HELL YES!

Self expression leads to self-determination but it is neither easy nor comfortable. My heart pounds and hands shake, my mind goes blank (especially in interviews with TV reporters!) but this too can be overcome. Others spoke of the hesitancy and daring leap out of their "comfort zone" but you could sense the liberating potential of people realizing they have a voice, they can sound at least as reasonable as that last guy, they have an opinion they want heard! First Friday of every month that soapbox will appear on that corner and talking back, speaking out, mouthing off, will once again begin to be part of our culture. Turns out it is also FUN!