this week’s opening monologue

hey all, hope you’ve been enjoying the marble hornets episode. i‘m putting the full text of the opening of this week’s episode on here so that you can have it if you want it for some reason. solidarity, josh

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Last night, Friday, October 27, I attended a spontaneous protest at Grand Central Terminal to demand an immediate cease fire in Gaza. I would like to tell you about what I saw.

If you have ever gone to a spontaneous direct action, you know how the police behave in these environments. Gone is the smiling, cheerful presence at events like the Women’s March and Corporate Pride, a collection of friendly neighborhood officers that just want to be part of the community, caring for you, yes, YOU! Instead, we were met with a steely-eyed, militarized force, a wall of blue, staring us down with a mixture of haughty anger and dead-eyed disdain.

A large group of protestors had massed quickly and marched to the main concourse of the terminal, but by the time I got there the blue line had blocked entry through all public points of ingress and I found myself massed with hundreds of protestors just inside the Park Avenue entrance. Chants of “Cease fire now” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” rang through the halls, protestors pushing up against NYPD officers who shoved back. Commuters coming up from the subway tried to make their way through with limited success. Some of them were bemused. Some of them were angry. None of them were going to catch their trains.

The NYPD and MTA made the joint decision to shut the station down completely. I decided to try to find another entrance and make it down to the concourse to see how this would all play out. I found one entrance that was unrestricted and descended the escalator to the concourse floor. Stepping off, under the famous blue-green constellation ceiling, I was immediately enveloped in a wall of sound.

On the ornate staircase leading up to the Apple Store, as well as on top of the ticket windows next to the massive departure and arrival boards, Jewish Voice For Peace protestors had mobilized with massive banners: “never again for anyone.” “Palestinians should be free.” “Mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living.” Hundreds sat on the floor of the concourse wearing matching black T-shirts with white printed text: on the front, NOT IN OUR NAME, on the back, JEWS SAY CEASE FIRE NOW. More chants, more singing.

NYPD brass stood on the balconies overlooking the concourse alongside US Army soldiers in full fatigues carrying M4 Carbines, while down on the floor a line of approximately two dozen NYPD Strategic Response Group officers stood ringing the protestors, zip ties strapped to their belts, ready to begin cuffing and arresting. An organizer wearing a high-visibility vest warned me that by staying in the area, I too was risking arrest. I stepped to the other side of the police line and began recording video on my phone. The arrests began.

There’s something very strange about watching a completely peaceful group of people getting cuffed with zip ties, detained, and taken into custody. There was no crying, no histrionics, no resistance: simply the full force of the state being brought to bear sharply and immediately on a restive populace. The arrested protestors were escorted to the Lexington Avenue/43rd Street tunnel, where they were lined up single file.

Outside the terminal at the police staging point on Lexington Avenue, a hundred or so bystanders looked on as arrestees from inside the terminal were boarded onto corrections buses and a dual-segment M103 bus that the police had commandeered for detainee transport. Around 9PM—three hours after the beginning of the protest—Grand Central Terminal re-opened to pedestrian traffic. Halloween revelers and tourists began flowing through the concourse. Other than the increased police and military presence, there was no sign that anything had happened. Just another Friday night in New York City.

Three hours later, the sun rose on Gaza, revealing entire city locks flattened by Israeli air strikes. IDF troops on the ground crossed the Gaza border and stayed. By the time you are listening to this, Israeli tanks will likely have entered Gaza City, ushering in a new era of occupation and asymmetric warfare, made possible by American and British arms.

I don’t have a neat conclusion for this, except to say: get out in the streets.  You can be a passive observer of genocide or you can fight. If you listen to this show, you probably have some investment the death of empire. This is your chance to help kill it. Look up protests in your area, get organized, and help bring about a better future.

Thanks for listening. Enjoy the show.