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.
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