Hear These Words

 On September 4, 2020, I attended a protest in support of Black Lives on the courthouse square in Prescott, Arizona, the town where I have lived for the last 32 years. This is what greeted our small group (click to watch video). Trigger warning.

Many of these men identified as “Oathkeepers,” sworn to “Protect the Constitution.”

In response, I decided to ask the progressive community to participate in continuous readings of the Constitution on Prescott’s Courthouse steps as a timely educational opportunity. I hoped to demonstrate that this founding document belongs to all of us.

Participants read for 2 hours on Saturdays and Sundays for 4 weekends in October and on November 1.

Readers were organized into teams of 4 with each person reading for 10 minutes at a time. Other team members held a mirror  - to symbolize that each of us is protected by the Constitution and responsible for upholding its principles - and a sign explaining the project.

Watch a short video of the project here.

A comment from one reader, dancer and choreographer, Delisa Myles, “There's something interesting about reading the document, feeling the layers of time embedded in it, and how the language has changed through time. There is a real feeling of us being the voice of the people. And it is important and rare that those words get said out loud and heard in contemporary times. I like too that it’s a bit of an endurance project, standing there for two hours and being a voice or being a support to the others.”

And from Melanie Bishop, who stopped on the square to listen, “It was profound and dignified. What is very effective I think, about the way Edie has designed this event, is the lack of any visible party affiliation. WE THE PEOPLE, folks. It was good to hear the words. Especially, justice, tranquility, welfare, and liberty.”

The last day of the project, November 1, was both tense and poignant. Forty eight hours before the election, the horns and jeers of Trump train trucks with confederate flags flying completely surrounded the square and almost drowned out the readers’ voices.

Almost.

With many thanks to the readers: Tom Fleischner, Rosemary Dixon, Delisa Myles, Debra Owen, Ramona Swift, Pat Beitel, Sue Campbell, Betty Hapke, Maria Lynam, Laurel Freeman, Bill Rice, Patrick Grady, Leslie Grady, Jean Boldi, Kathleen O’Halleran, Diane McQueen, Abby Brill, Deb Alberty, Jacqueline DeSa, Melanie Bishop, Kevin Hutson, Mary Kaye O’Neil.

And to filmmaker Bill Court of Courthouse Films//Arizona Bunker Productions Media

NPR coverage of this project by Angela Gervasi, host of KNAU Morning Edition can be heard here.

Photographs on this page by Bonnie Dann, Ramona Swift, Martyn Davies, Edie Dillon