Yesterday’s demonstration in front of Eureka’s Bank of America was part of a nationwide effort by MoveOn.org to bring attention to the fact their belief that corporations don’t pay their fair share of the taxes.  It began at 4:30 and lasted roughly an hour.  Protester Bruce Edwards who took these photos said,

It went peacefully, with a count of, I would estimate, at least sixty people, maybe more. Most were gathered right in front of the bank, but some of us went across the street as well, so all four corners had some folks.

Not only were there a large amount of signs but, Edwards explained that a tax bill “…was presented to the bank when the organizer, Susana Munzell went in and handed it to a teller. I didn’t witness that, but she told me that at first he simply ignored her, but with some coaxing, or perhaps shaming, he looked up from his computer screen and accepted it.”  He added, “It should be made clear that the message that was to be delivered through all of these demonstrations throughout the country was that no one was blaming the actual employees for misdeeds— just the CEOs, etc., not to mention our own government, of course….”

Many of the people who drove by honked in support of the message being delivered, along with only a few negative comments or reactions.

The protestors received some media attention.

In the above photo, some of the Richardson Grove Action Now group  joined in with their own protest. Originally, they were at the Caltrans office to protest the project at Richardson Grove.

Edwards described his experience as positive.  It felt “good to be a part of this action- to be speaking our feelings about the injustice which is in the tax shelters and bailouts that our federal government has allowed to these huge corporations.”  As a final act, he says that ‘[a]s I left, I placed an 8&1/2 by 11 tax bill, which I’d downloaded and printed, in the padlock on the front of the metal security gate at the entrance to the bank… .”

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Photos by Bruce Edwards