Strength in the Number 3.5

By Barbara Turner

​I spotted several local Abiquiu, Medenales and El Rito folks amongst the thousands that attended the Hands Off protest against the Trump Administration at the Roundhouse on April 5th. It was heartening to feel our reach and passion around what is happening to our beautiful country. Many of Trump’s policies will affect us here locally. 

One of the most recent and stunning Trump administration proposals is to start selling off our public lands to private and corporate entities in an ongoing effort to not only reduce the federal deficit but to start a Sovereign Wealth Fund. In other words the value of our public lands would be determined by their potential market value and sold to the highest bidder. Our local public lands could potentially be removed from our access.
 
A BBC article entitled, "The 3.5% RULE: How a Small Minority Can Change the World"came to mind in technicolor as I participated in this lively and peaceful protest. Citing research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist connected to Harvard University who studied hundreds of peaceful campaigns over the last century, the article states the knowable fact that "nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts-and those engaging a threshold of 3.5 % of the population have never failed to bring about change”.

As momentum grows here in New Mexico we should all take heart and bring others along with us. There is documented strength in our numbers.

Note: Abiquiu/ Youngsville Indivisible Group . ( indivisible.org) will have it official kickoff meeting April 22 5:30 pm at the Abiquiu Inn. ​