What I saw at the #HandsOff protests in Washington

Good afternoon from Washington, where April showers have washed away the thick coating of pollen on cars and windows from this weekend past. Thanks to everyone who has signed up since my last dispatch, and to everyone else who has been listening since last year. Please consider upgrading to a paid membership if you are able, or let me know alex@governing.digital what I need to do to earn your support.

On the 74th day of the second Trump presidency, tall fences went up around the White House, again.

I‘d ended a long week with a bike ride from Capitol Hill down to the Tidal Basin, Lincoln Memorial, and Constitution Gardens to reflect on the institutions and generations past that brought us to this moment.

The blooms may be gone from many trees, but these spaces still inspire my mind and help lift my heart.

Unlike the Capitol or Supreme Court, the seat of our executive branch looked like a mansion in an authoritarian nation, not the people’s house in an open democracy.

I sensed the guardians of this place bracing for anger Saturday, but no violence followed.

I cycled down to the Washington Monument on Saturday to bear witness to my fellow Americans vigorously exercise our freedoms to peaceably assemble, associate, express ourselves, & petition our government for redress of grievances.

There were thousands of signs that show the First Amendment endures, for now.

Satire and satire mingled with flags, costumes, and puppetry.

Freedom of expression, on riotous display.

This is what our democracy looked like.

The closest I was able to come to the Sylvan stage still didn’t give me a clear line of vision to the speakers or clear audio of the speakers, but I didn’t go down there to see them or hear them. I knew CSPAN had that covered, given the Members of Congress who spoke.

Kakistocracy is unfortunately a topical word in 2025, like autocracy, theocracy, oligarchy, and fascism.

The civic vocabulary and political identity of Americans in 2025 now contains multitudes, including the people protesting the war in Gaza over on Pennsylvania Avenue.

I stopped to bear witness to the public art calling attention to the thousands of children who have died there.

Afterwards, I joined a community of Sikhs for a meal and discussion, which reminded me of the diversity we see in the District every day.

On Sunday, I helped clean up the National Mall during my ride by picking up & binning two discarded signs that were left in in my lane, so to speak.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. ♻️

Estimates of the numbers of Americans who came out to protest on Saturday vary, but organizers in New York and DC thought more than 100,000 people came out in those cities, vastly exceedinf registrants, along with millions more across all fifty states.

I don’t know if these events represent a spark that will galvanize sustained organizing and spawn new connections, or will simply act as a vent for the anger, fear, anxiety, and grief many Americans are feeling.

I do know that I never get tired of seeing peaceful assembly in Washington, after witnessing seditious mob violence four years ago at the Capitol.

Council of DC seeks secrecy

I finally uploaded video of D.C. Open Government Coalition’s Sunshine Week event to YouTube.

If you watch, you’ll see fair, frank, & constructive criticism of the DC government by former councilwoman Elissa Silverman and two reporters.

In the interim, the Council of the District of Columbia voted 10-2 to exempt itself from DC’s open meeting law, not all agencies. It’s “emergency” legislation & expires in 90 days.

Chairman Phil Mendelson has acted to shield disagreements with Mayor Muriel Bowser or between councilors from the people they serve, starving Washingtonians of the knowledge we need to be self-governing.

When asked by a reporter if he could guarantee that the Council would not abuse the new exemptions to the Open Meetings Act should they become permanent, Mendelson said, “The honest answer is, I can’t guarantee that.”

Watch carefully for him to try to weaken DC’s FOI law, again.

There was no civic emergency that required more secrecy, only the preferences of the councilmembers.

The director of the Office of Open Government told the Washington Post there was no need to exempt almost all of Council activity from the Open Meetings Act.

“It’s really unnecessary to take this extraordinary step to get to where they think they need to be,” DC Open Government Director Niquelle Allen told the Washington Post.

“I think the unintended consequences of that is while this council has made the commitment that they will continue to operate openly, would a different council interpret it the same way.”

“Making changes to a law that is a core pillar of District governance, such as the Open Meetings Act, should not be taken lightly,” Councilwoman Janeese Lewis George, who voted against the bill, told the Post.

“We are a coequal branch of government involved in politics,” said Councilor Charles Allen, who voted against the bill. “I’m not quite sure why we’d be afraid to talk about where we have points of disagreement with the executive branch.”

DC Auditor Kathy Patterson told the Washington Post that she does not support exempting vast swaths of council business from the law.

“I can’t speak in favor of secret meetings,” said Patterson, a former council member who had authored legislation on open meetings .

In 2010, Muriel Bowser championed the Open Meetings Act — as a council member.

She gave no comment to the Post about the steady regression of transparency and accountability on her watch.

This was an unnecessary, ill-advised shift towards secrecy. Every councilor should be investing in ways to increase trust in the Council after Trayon White was indicted for corruption and expelled, not shutting out the public & press, shrouding meetings in darkness.

Thanks to George and Charles Allen, my elected representative in DC government, for standing up for transparency.

Kudos to the Washington Post for reporting this out: I’m citing their journalism today.

We’ll need all Washingtonians to defend public meetings against this becoming permanent this summer.