Reflections of a Hundred Year Old Activist

By Ida Cohen

Seeing so many of us in front of New Britain’s City Hall was a sight for these sore eyes. Lately reading the news has been so depressing, and there we were one hundred strong, chanting, yelling, fighting for our civil rights! Every time I’ve heard discussions on the news and radio I’ve been exhorted to “join my neighbors, make a group!” but where and how was I supposed to do that? Now here I sat in my wheelchair, my friends and family around me, organized to act.

So many issues break my heart – Israelis who should know better, committing genocide, a city in California taken over by the federal government, the destruction of our civil service that Lincoln commenced after the Civil War. All of these things and so much more make me so very anxious about the future that faces my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and the country.

Many of us are finally disturbed and taking to the streets. When five of our neighbors were abducted from their jobs by ununiformed ICE agents with no warrants, and imprisoned in Hartford, hard hittin’ New Britain stirred. As terrible as this event is, by joining this protest hope came alive again for me, maybe all of us will finally use our power, people power, to recover from the disaster I have been witnessing these lonely anxious months.