I took Violet to the march in downtown L.A. yesterday.
It was her second protest appearance – the first was the one at City Hall in solidarity with the Wisconsin workers. I’m all hopped up on the protest goofballs these days what with the Movement getting stronger and us writing our We’re The 99 song, which by the way is now on You Tube.
Anyway, I guess Saturdays are march days now and I wanted to go be a part of it, even though I have this stupid cold that’s lasting forever. Richard has the cold too, but that was only part of his reason for not going.
This is the main reason – SARSFINGER. An infection from a nasty sliver. Booo.
But Violet and I went down and marched with the 99% crowd from Pershing Square to the Bank of America headquarters, then back to the occupiers home camp at City Hall. She was a trooper, walking more than half the way herself, then the rest in my arms. There were frequent stops for Pocky, chocolate chips and juice. Okay so I’m not the healthiest protester. But you can’t do it all at the same time, people.
There were some good signs.
This guy obviously thought long and hard about his sign and I appreciate that. However, I doubt I would want to hang out and have a beer with him. I think you know what I mean.
And of course, it wouldn’t be California if there weren’t THIS guy in the crowd.
I couldn’t zoom out fast enough to show that his other hand was in a solidarity fist. This guy has been to a lot of fucking marches. I’m just saying. He reminded me of the Viet Nam days, not that I was there, and then I saw this movie marquee.
I was so excited I wanted to share it with someone, so I turned around to a bunch of college students behind me and said, “Hey, look! Easy Rider’s playing at that cinema! Isn’t that funny?” And every single one of them gave me a blank stare. Sigh. But later I met three gray-haired gay dudes from Palm Springs who thought it was hilarious and I felt validated. Thanks guys.
The culmination was at the headquarters of Bank of America downtown.
I felt like the biggest hypocrite ever since I still bank there, but a hippie woman informed me that everyone will be pulling their money out of there before November 5th, so I still have time to put my money where my mouth is, thank god.
It was nice that this part of the march was in the shade. Violet and I took a rest here and one photographer took four million pictures of Violet eating chocolate chips. This was the only picture I got of us.
Violet definitely was more interested in the snacks than the march, but she did want me to keep reminding her how the ‘song at the march’ went. “From New York to L.A., occupy the USA” – I have to admit it gave me goose bumps to think of this happening all across the country!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUdm9qRTbWs
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