Low-Hanging Fruit: Concepcion Picciotto and the 29 year Vigil

The first subject of Quotidian Dissent is perhaps the most appropriate, because she has literally been protesting outside the White House all day, every day since 1981. 

Concepcion Picciotto, who emigrated from Spain in the 60’s, is the archetype of the crazy protest lady, espousing a conspiratorial worldview in pamphlets, flyers, and two large yellow signs that have become a fixture in Lafayette Park for nearly three decades.  A poster of her late companion and collaborator Thomas has accompanied her since his death some years ago. 

Her cause?  Ridding the world of nuclear weapons.  And protesting the government.  And peace, corruption, killing, the environment, and Israel.  But mainly, nuclear weapons.  In high pitched rants that expose her few remaining teeth, she explain her worldview to anyone who asks.  She is protesting

against the proliferation of mass destruction weapons, is the fate of the world, and people have to wake up now and demand of all governments in the world to stop this insanity of radioactivity like in Yugoslavia and Iraq.  The United States is the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons on human beings, so we must stop this killing; we destroy the planet.

For Picciotto, protest is crucial because “the televisions and the media is controlled by these peoples, who are concerned with making money only, and don’t tell people the truth.”  It is a way of subverting the information systems in place, and getting a message directly to those in power, or at least the tourists who come to see the residence of those in power. 

In my mind, Conchita or Connie, as she likes to be called, represents the impulse to be heard.  She has sacrificed her entire life, braving the hottest of summers and coldest of winters, in order to be able to say that she did “something” about the troubles she sees in the world.  Yet, it seems ludicrous that she could have any possible effect on policy.  No matter.  Connie believes she’s making a difference.  “Otherwise we wouldn’t get so much hassle from the government.”  Asked in an interview in 2005 what she would do if the world came around to her point of view, she replied “I don’t know.”

Crazy or not, the tenacity she maintains for a cause she believes in is truly amazing, and quite unprecedented.  But in her view, “What’s more amazing is the people who do nothing.”

(More information on Concepcion Picciotto, her background, and her views are available on her website, but don’t ask me how they got there).

-Niv Elis