The Day We Won

On Monday, December 3rd, at 2:45PM, I was stopped by a security of Daley Center because I had a megaphone and two banners that I carried with me just in case we would have a presser or rally after the injunction ruling. A megaphone was turned off, and banners were folded inside a bag. I didn't have a problem carrying them into the courtroom last time on October 10th. I don't know if they changed the protocol, or it depends on individual guards' carefulness/obtuseness. They just didn't let me in with the bag nor let me leave the bag there.

I didn't mind giving up my megaphone. But I could no way give up the banners. Those banners "I ❤️ NTA" and "Black Students Matter" were made by one of NTA parents and have been to every action with us. Parents, in turn, have taken care of them: taking to an action, holding and waving, bringing back to parents' room, then again taking to another action... If, by any chance, we would have lost the case, we would have needed those banners more than ever. They are our spirit. I started thinking that I might have to miss the ruling and stay in the lobby waiting until everyone came back.

Our lawyers just arrived to find me in trouble. They pointed the outside and told me, "Why don't you ask them to hold it for you?" It was Christkindlmarket. I ran out of the building and jumped in a beer hall in front. I asked a woman behind the counter if she could hold the bag for me for a few hours. She was so nice that she didn't even care about the details. All I told her was that I had to go to the courtroom.

Then, I could go to the courtroom.

Following the historic win, a presser happened just outside of the courtroom on the 24th floor, contrary to my original expectation. If I had been waiting in the lobby, I would not have been able to attend the presser. Without the woman of the beer hall, We Are NTA would not have been able to live record the moment of victory.

When I went to pick up my bag, she was still there. I told her we won. She congratulated me and gave me this souvenir mug, which I stopped collecting a long time ago. Probably, she still doesn't know which case I was involved in.