We took the girls up to a protest today; earlier in the week my wife had seen a group of protestors in Ballard, so we walked the girls to the same intersection, but we turned out to be the entire demonstration. I’d hastily made two placards for the girls to wave, and not prepared for a long conversation with La Serpiente about systemic, institutional racism, on a sunny day in June.
Nothing untoward happened. My expectation of any public gathering is that sooner or later, somebody gets their head kicked in; I’m nervous around crowds, whether that’s demonstrations or sporting events. But there was just a procession of people tooting their horns in a friendly way as they drove past. Eventually a friend of ours arrived with her son, so we stood on the corner for a while longer, then walked home. Not exactly a major push for civil rights from us, but a gentle introduction for the girls.
Otherwise, another day like pretty much any other. I worked, I had phone calls, I made headway on some things and failed to progress on others, and then I finished the evening with a game of Blood Bowl, because my escapism in these violent times involves playing a pastiche of a very violent game. And so to bed.