Some Thoughts on the First Amendment

Dear Bridge Brigaders,

This one is a little longer than usual. But I stumbled onto something in the First Amendment that completely changed the way I think about what we do on our bridges. Stay with me.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I’ve read the First Amendment plenty of times. But lately I keep coming back to these words: “…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

That's us. That's what we're doing when we're on our bridges. And the more I think about it, the more remarkable I find it.

The First Amendment assumes that democracy needs people (like us) who are willing to be PUBLICLY dissatisfied with their government. It doesn't merely tolerate that dissatisfaction. It makes room for it right at the beginning of the Bill of Rights.

Democracy needs:

• People willing to think, This is wrong..

• People willing to say it first privately and then publicly..

• People willing to find each other, assemble together and demand change..

• People willing to make their grievances visible..

But there's a huge difference between having a grievance and making that grievance visible.

I can sit at home furious about what is happening in our country. You can sit at home furious. A hundred of us can sit in a hundred different homes feeling exactly the same way. Yet, from the outside, it looks like silence.

Then we walk onto a bridge. And we hang signs. And that, in a nutshell, is what NHBBD does on bridges: we make our grievances public.

We take what was private and make it public. We put the things we believe on 20-foot signs over New Hampshire highways for thousands of people to see.

And making our grievances visible is when the magic happens.

What happens when a grievance becomes visible?

There are people driving under our bridges who are every bit as upset as we are. But they aren't on a bridge. They aren't in a group like ours. They may be the only one in their family who feels like they do. They may have no idea how many other people in New Hampshire are feeling exactly what they're feeling.

And when you can't see other people resisting, it's pretty easy to conclude that nobody is resisting. You can adopt an attitude of, Why bother voting if everyone else has given up?

Then they drive under one of our bridges.

There are 10 people standing there with signs. Cars around them are honking. Then a few days later, they drive under another bridge and there we are again. Maybe the next week they see us somewhere else.

Now multiply that by 25+ bridges across New Hampshire.

That's what we are giving people between now and November 3: evidence.

Evidence that people haven't given up. Evidence that people are publicly petitioning the Government for a redress of their grievances. Evidence that people are willing to stand publicly behind what they believe. Evidence that resistance in New Hampshire isn't disappearing.

Evidence that RESISTANCE IS GROWING.

And that's when a visible grievance can become something more. It can change what someone else does. I believe seeing our public grievances on New Hampshire bridges can change whether someone votes or not.

Voting feels very different when you believe you're one frustrated person casting one lonely vote than when you've spent the weeks before an election seeing hundreds of people all over your state saying: We want that change too.

That's the connection between what we do on the bridges and what happens on both September 8 and November 3.

The First Amendment protects our right to speak. But we still have to speak. It protects our right to assemble. But we still have to assemble. It protects our right to petition our government for change. But we still have to demand it.

Publicly. As much as possible. Between now and Election Day.

Our signs don't vote, but they can move a person from “why bother?” to the voting booth. Let's reach as many of these people as we possibly can before Election Day.

See you on the bridges.

Greta