Skip to main content

Signs of the Times

 Like many in this country, I made my way to last Saturday's rally and march to speak out against the Trump regime's attempt to capsize democracy.  Thousands joined me at Naito Plaza in Portland.  Similar  marches were taking place in every major city in this country.  It was time, again, to take to the streets and put our bodies on the line.



I went by bus with a group of friends and neighbors from North Portland.  We were soon separated by the huge crowd, but no matter, we were prepared for that and made sure everyone knew how to get back home and felt free to exit the large crowd whenever we felt necessary.  At 78, my marching days go back to the late 1960s and it's hard not to compare experiences.  Of course the technology has had a major impact.  I noticed that all the speakers at the rally held a cell phone from which they occasionally referred to for notes on their comments.  People were constantly snapping pictures or making videos.  A drone hovered, repeatedly over the crowd and criss-crossed the vista recording footage of people on the street and all along the nearby Morrison Bridge.  



Many photographs were taken of the myriad homemade signs people held.  My neighbor handed me a sign to carry having been to a sign-making party the night before.  She saw I held noting and encouraged me to carry an extra she had.  My sign was a caricature of Donals Trump as Humpty Dumpty, a cracked egg, with the caption: "Eggistential Crisis."  I got many requests to stop so someone could take a photo.  



When I had the room to take a break, I jotted down some of my favorite messages the sign carries.

Here's what resonated the most with me:

Beware of Doge

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty

The Doge ate my Constitution

IKEA has better cabinets

This won't end well

We are ruthless, now act accordingly,

And, this one,  carried by an elderly woman who looked to be in her 80s, which made reference to the Israel/Palestinian conflict : Both Sides Wrong  End Genocide

There were many others.  Many, many, others including a repurposed fire truck with  a large sign reading "Turd Reich"  displaying the faces of Trump, Musk and a few others drawn as Hitlerian Nazis.  

The signs kept everyone laughing and calm, I think.  That's necessary when so many people are jammed together in a small space.  Of course the speakers included all manner of related and sometimes unrelated causes.  As Jimmy Durante used to say, "Everybody wants to get into the act."  That has come to be expected.  


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.   You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.   I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...

Illusory

What does it take to enrage you?  That moment when your words fly on pure emotion because enough is enough.  Is it a driver that cuts you off at high speed?  What about being an eyewitness to blatant racism or on the receiving end of some obvious injustice? I know some people who never express rage.  I admire them but know full well I am not capable of such distance from that which would bring about such a strong response. Another senseless shooting and 7 people die at the hands of a mentally ill gun owner.  The father of the 20 year old college student lets it fly and somehow millions feel a new sense of relief.  He calls the politicians bastards who do nothing, he wears his pain in public.  The news media responds but we all know that nothing is going to change.  We are the gun country.  We are the place where anybody, anytime, can be cut down just for being there when somebody else snaps. Usually the perpetrators are delusional. ...

Mr. Greene v. Mr. Brown

I want to tell you about something. Something I've carried inside myself for a number of years now. Perhaps if I were a different kind of person I wouldn't need to talk about it. I'm not. My need to tell it is stronger than your need to hear it. Because, however, there are a number of teachers and former students of mine who may read these meanderings from time to time, I need to tell this story all the more. About 7 or 8 years ago I was asked if I would allow a university PhD. candidate to observe an English class. At first I decided against it because I was scheduled to have a student teacher placed with me the second half of the semester in question. After some urging, however, at the request of a respected colleague, I agreed. Soon I was committing to extra meetings, signing documents and explaining to the class in question who the young woman who thoughtfully pounded away on a laptop in the rear of the classroom three times a week was. I knew that the topic of ...