Last Night at the Protest...
#firstamendment #llamas #love
Let’s put awareness of institutional bigotry on a scale of “Love your neighbor” (10+, on the left) to “Did you know that transwomen are men???!” (-1, on the right) .
Most of us are somewhere way to the right, even when we think we’re to the left, because we don’t know what we don’t know. For most of my life I’ve been working on learning the history of the place where I live, the Willamette Valley.
Born and raised here, I still know almost nothing of the geopolitical history of the indigenous peoples. Fortunately, the US Government’s genocidal wars against Northwest tribes failed, and native people are writing novels, saving rivers, teaching in universities, farming, fishing, and running casinos. You’re probably already familiar with excellent indigenous arts and sciences. But even the white history I learned every year at Jefferson* Elementary, J.V. Beach Elementary, and Edgewood Elementary was so white that our textbooks left out York, the explorer. Fortunately, there’s an opera about him now. We don’t know what we don’t know.
So last night, as I was leaving the merry band of revelers dancing in front of the ICE facility at 4310 S. Macadam Ave, Portland, when a large white man standing next to a white pickup truck with extra high suspension ran toward me shouting, “Did you know that transwomen are men? Didja? Didja? If you don’t answer me, you agree!!” I just thought to myself, wow, maybe he doesn’t know this is an anti-cruelty protest? Maybe he hasn’t heard about the ICE agents pointing shotguns at children? Maybe he didn’t know that a public elementary school here had to close last Friday because ICE agents were endangering children and parents? Well, he was with five other white men, one with a bullhorn, who were standing in a tight knot on the sidewalk, so I’m pretty sure he knew the answer to the first question. We oldsters who left the protest early walked in the street, next to the parked cars, to avoid these men. They blocked the sidewalk. I’m pretty sure none of them know or care about the answers to the other two questions. But the absurdity of “transwomen are men” as a “counterprotest” to our protest against state violence against immigrants seemed appropriate to me, since the USA is a recent immigrant itself. A baby. A squalling 249 year old baby who has grabbed the toys and smashed them. Our parents, the land, the indigenous peoples, plants, and animals who preceded us, still tolerate us somehow. It even feels like these parents love us and hope that we might grow into a mature country!
Meanwhile, the protests are keeping our candles of hope for peace and justice lit.
Here’s the flash mob dance we taught the protestors last night. We got the power.
*Ceasar, the no-drama therapy llama is from Jefferson, part of my childhood!♥️
