In Which I Am Politically Active
May. 27th, 2009 07:51 amI met
sweh at our usual pub for a quick drink after work yesterday; the quicker because as usual in a holiday week I had an off-by-one error, forgetting it was Tuesday, which is their open mic night. So as soon as the mic opened, we departed. As I walked him to the PATH, we saw a mob of people in the middle of Sixth Ave with signs that we couldn't see; so after he descended into the depths, I noodled down to have a look.
It was, of course, people protesting the upholding of Prop 8, which seems obvious in retrospect. And so I stood for a minute as they started to surge uptown, and took the obligatory few blurred cellphone pics, and saw a couple of girls dashing from the crowd to join the march; and I thought to myself, "Self, I support this product and/or service, why do I not join the march too?" Self replied with a nebulous megrim, which was the usual combination of Not Putting Myself Forward and Who Am I, Anyways, To Stick My Oar In? and then I looked at Self and smacked it with a metaphorical fish, because of course the point of a public protest is for everyone who thinks that the protested item is Wrong can, should, and is welcome to participate. Therefore I too dashed from the crowd and joined the march, which went from there up to Union Square. I peeled off at the end of the march and took the subway home, not sticking around for the rally--there were plenty and enough people to fill the park, but more particularly I desperately needed to pee.
(No Tasering, no police shenanigans of any kind. I think they know better than to mess with the pride crowd by now and save it for the bicyclists instead.)
It was, of course, people protesting the upholding of Prop 8, which seems obvious in retrospect. And so I stood for a minute as they started to surge uptown, and took the obligatory few blurred cellphone pics, and saw a couple of girls dashing from the crowd to join the march; and I thought to myself, "Self, I support this product and/or service, why do I not join the march too?" Self replied with a nebulous megrim, which was the usual combination of Not Putting Myself Forward and Who Am I, Anyways, To Stick My Oar In? and then I looked at Self and smacked it with a metaphorical fish, because of course the point of a public protest is for everyone who thinks that the protested item is Wrong can, should, and is welcome to participate. Therefore I too dashed from the crowd and joined the march, which went from there up to Union Square. I peeled off at the end of the march and took the subway home, not sticking around for the rally--there were plenty and enough people to fill the park, but more particularly I desperately needed to pee.
(No Tasering, no police shenanigans of any kind. I think they know better than to mess with the pride crowd by now and save it for the bicyclists instead.)