Several hundred democracy activists have been arrested in Washington, D.C. this week as part of Democracy Spring. There’s a related Democracy Democracy Awakening rally at 4:00 p.m. Friday in Sarasota. It’s at the Federal Building at the corner of South Orange Avenue and Ringling Boulevard.
WMNF News interviewed Arlene Sweeting, director of the Peace Education and Action Center.
“We are holding a solidarity rally with Democracy Awakening, which is a large grassroots mobilization that’s happening in Washington D.C. this weekend. Over 300 organizations have signed on, nationally, and we have 14 here, locally, that have signed on to our local event.
“We had a couple of our local activists actually go up to D.C. and they’ll be reporting back to the community. But, of course, we had a lot of people that weren’t going to be able to make that trip. So, we wanted to make sure that people here, in our community, were aware of what was going on, because we know the mainstream media doesn’t cover these type of events very often.
“And so we decided to stage our own rally, here in front of [U.S.] Representative Vern Buchanan’s office. And that is going to happen at 4:00 p.m. today.
“And the main issues that Democracy Awakening is calling for is getting big money out of politics; basically overturning Citizens United. And then restoring voter protections that were removed when the Supreme Court gutted the voting rights act in 2013.”
The rally at Vern Buchanan’s office, that’s the federal building which is 111 S. Orange Avenue?
“That’s correct. It’s right on the corner of Orange Avenue and Ringling Boulevard.”
And where can people go if they need more information? Either a phone or a website.
“They can give me a call 941-545-5635.”
