Today is Friday, so naturally Jane Fonda hosted a climate change protest at Capitol Hill. A month ago, the octogenarian actress relocated to Washington DC to host a weekly ‘Fire Drill Friday’ rally outside the Capitol to bring attention to our ‘climate emergency.’ Without fail, Capitol Hill police arrest her at each protest. Hoping to witness some righteous civil disobedience, Cockburn stopped by Fonda’s rally on Friday.
When he arrived, Cockburn saw a few hundred protesters gathered in front of a small stage on the Capitol grounds. Dozens of attendees held signs, with many showing support for AOC’s Green New Deal. One patriotic man, surely by mistake, held the American flag upside down.
For close to an hour, speakers ascended the stage to deliver spoken word poems. Eve Ensler, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues, opened her speech with words that rattled Cockburn to the core: ‘Dear mother,’ Ensler started, speaking directly to our humble planet, ‘it began with the article about the birds. The 2.9 billion missing North American birds…’ Reaching a crescendo by the end of her speech, Ensler declared, ‘Let us rise for our mother…what is done to us is done to her. We must give our lives now to protect her.’
After the guest speeches, Fonda stepped to the stage to ‘demand that the fossil fuel companies leave all new oil and gas in the ground.’ To ensure oil and gas are no longer produced, Fonda demonstrated some realism: ‘no matter who we elect to office, no matter how good she is, we’re going to have to hold the president’s feet to the fire, and the Senate, and the Congress, and governors, and state legislators. All the way down the ticket.’
After her impassioned speech, Fonda led the gathered crowd to the Hart Senate Office Building to engage in ‘civil disobedience.’ As Fonda and company marched toward the office building, one man in a MAGA hat followed the procession and yelled ‘Hanoi Jane’ at the actress as he livestreamed the event.
Eventually, the crowd reached the Senate office building and Fonda was arrested:
We are in the US Senate Hart building where @Janefonda was just arrested for the 4th time demanding #ClimateJustice and uplifting the disproportionate effects on women from climate change. #FireDrillFriday 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UCZKDqqxge
— Fire Drill Fridays (@FireDrillFriday) November 1, 2019
While Cockburn isn’t prepared to sacrifice his life for Mother Earth, he believes Fonda deserves a new nickname after this arrest. Might he suggest ‘Climate Change Jane’?
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