Highlander of the Issue: Leah Siegel

Youth climate activist Leah Siegel organizes protest against U.S. Attorney General

POLINA ZUBAREV FEATURES EDITOR

Atotal of 10 protestors sat waiting in front of Attorney General William Barr’s house at six o’clock in the morning. With five days of rigorous planning behind her, junior Leah Siegel was ready to confront Barr.

Siegel is a member of the Sunrise Movement, a national organization of youth climate activists. She also founded the McLean chapter for Sunrise several months ago. Throughout her life, Siegel has attended numerous protests—more than she can count—and has remained politically active.

“The earliest protests that we started going to were in 2017,” her older brother, Jeremy Siegel, said. “I think, just as a whole, even our grandparents, aunts, uncles— everyone [in our family]—is very political. It’s just something we grew up with.”

Siegel admires how protests are public and allow anyone to participate to voice their opinions.

“The right to protest is an extremely powerful and important thing. [Protesting] connects people to a greater cause and gets the word out about certain issues,” Siegel said.

As the founder of the Sunrise McLean chapter, Siegel leads the group and its members.

“It’s not a new thing for [Leah] to be a leader. She’s very vocal about almost everything she does,” Siegel’s brother said. “She brings genuinely good leadership to... the McLean chapter and the overall Sunrise Movement.”

On Aug. 18, Siegel joined members of Sunrise McLean and leaders of other local activist organizations in front of Barr’s home in McLean to protest.

“We specifically targeted William Barr because he does not uphold democracy and justice in our country, even though he is supposed to do that as the Attorney General of the Department of Justice,” Siegel said.

Barr, a Republican attorney, is serving his second term as Attorney General under President Trump and has received criticism. The Attorney General’s primary

role is to act as the head of the Department of

Justice, which Siegel and other members of Sunrise believe Barr has not fulfilled, especially regarding the handling of the Mueller report. The Mueller report documented former FBI director Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible interference in the 2016 election.

Confronting Barr was nothing new for Sunrise. The organization specifically targets high profile figures in order to bring a greater level of awareness to certain issues.

“[The Attorney General is] a figure that [people] vaguely know, but it’s not a figure that they pay attention to, so that was also one of the main motivations for the protest,” Siegel said.

While the protestors met around 6 a.m., they remained silent for an entire hour to abide by a Fairfax County noise ordinance that Siegel had researched. As soon as the hour was up, the protestors began chanting, reciting speeches and banging pans at high volumes.

“The moment it hit 7, [all of the protestors there thought], ‘OK, we can make noise now,’” said junior Clare A’Hearn, who helped Siegel plan the event. “We all collectively were like, ‘We got this— this is the moment we’ve been waiting for to get our message across.’”

Barr made an appearance, only to quickly sneak out of a side door of his house to get in his car. He did not acknowledge Siegel or her team.

“Around 7:30, he came out of his house and went to his car. At that point, we were specifically...yelling to him, saying, ‘You need to fix this, this is your responsibility, come face us,’” Siegel said.

Equipped with a megaphone gifted to

her by her family, Siegel recited a prepared speech directed to Barr.

“The passion really shone through [when she spoke],” A’Hearn said. “I was standing right next to her, and she really meant every word of what she was saying. With the fact that climate justice is being ignored, there was a tone of desperation too in her words.”

While Siegel was the main speaker at the protest, she also did the majority of the organization and planning with the help of A’Hearn.

“I definitely felt nervous [planning the protest], but also excited,” Siegel said. “It was stressful and nerve-racking organizing everything from the art build to getting people to show up.”

One of the major meetings that Sunrise McLean had to organize prior to the protest was an “art build,” which served as a time to create posters to bring to the protest. Members of the protest also went through a training to make sure that everyone would be fully prepared for the protest.

“The art build was just to make all of our signs,” Siegel said. “Because we are so new and don’t have much of a budget, they were kind of amateur signs made with just spray paint and cardboard.”

Although she was hoping for a larger group, Siegel was still satisfied with the 10 Sunrise members and activist leaders who came to the protest.

“Getting people to come out early in the morning, on a work day, in the suburbs... is pretty difficult just because people need to think about getting there and...about coronavirus as well,” Siegel said. “ we live in a privileged area that can afford to ignore problems, and that needs to change.” -Leah Siegel

The art build, training and hours of planning seemed to pay off, as Siegel and A’Hearn reported that the protest went smoothly and without any of the major issues that they had researched and made plans to avoid.

“I think that the protest did go really well. Some neighbors obviously weren’t too happy about it, but at the same time it’s to raise public attention,” Siegel said. “We live in a privileged area that can afford to ignore problems, and that needs to change.”

Siegel is dead set on continuing to advocate for the climate and working with the Sunrise Movement.

“Right now before the election, [Sunrise is] focusing on phone banking and getting out the vote to help Green New Deal champions get elected,” Siegel said. “So for now, [protesting is] kind of put on hold, but later in the year there will definitely be more actions.”

Siegel’s passion for the issues that she cares about, like climate change, will always shine through.

“She’s definitely going to stay political no matter what she does,” Siegel’s brother said. “It’ll probably change in terms of what she wants her career path to be, but I’ve always heard her talk about becoming a lawyer or politician or [continuing with] activism.”

With support from her family and friends, Siegel is looking forward to planning and attending more protests in the future.

“All the adults in my life were proud of the protest I organized. My parents were supportive of the protest from the beginning, offering help [and advice],” Siegel said. “I think my future will definitely include more protesting, especially after coronavirus.”

Waking William Barr

The process to find Barr’s McLean home address was an easy one for Siegel. “The address of William Barr is public record—you can just go through property tax databases and find all the properties that were bought and sold in the area,” Siegel said.