Are you familiar with these images and their ilk?
They have been taken, over the past couple of years, by a group doing Human Banners on Ocean Beach, San Francisco. The next time you see one, if all goes according to plan, I’ll be in it. They’re still looking for participants, here’s the link if anyone fancies a little art and activism of a Saturday morning, i.e. in 2.5 hours today. 11:00am. See you there!
And if not, think corduroy. That’s right, I said corduroy. Finally a trend I can endorse.
Have a wonderful weekend!
For those following along, here are a few of the photos I took, along with one taken by the helicopter pilot the organizers hired for the day.
People streaming onto the beach, in an organized manner.
Lining up, with hats, sunscreen, rage and hope.
From above. A couple thousand of us. My sister and I are on the outer edge of the left-hand wing of the “V,” waving at the “O”s, because we are above everything inclusive.
I, for one, would love to be sleeping better.
18 Responses
I went out for a protest in our town (an almost purple area in a red state). But we do not have beaches, and this protest did not end up with any inflatable costumes at it, sigh. A lot of good signs, some number of adorable dogs, but no performance art aside from an enthusiastic cowbell, if that counts. :-)
It’s fun to know you’ll [hopefully] be in the next of those photos!!! It’s a great idea and I’ve enjoyed seeing them.
A cowbell definitely counts. The music at our event could have been played in 1971, took me right back to my teen years. I think I’ll edit this post with one of the event photos from around the web and one of mine.
Those are great! Our small city had a larger turnout than over the summer, and people were really engaged. The org I work for handed out lots of voter info and had a spirited petition going.
Hope you’re event went well. Looking forward to photos. I’ll look for the inspiring activist in corduroy!
The event was great. Hot, oddly for SF, maybe sadly, too hot for corduroy LOL, but it was great. I think I’ll edit this post to put a picture up. Very glad to hear you had good turnout in your city! Rubber is meeting the road, so to speak.
Turnout today seemed lower in numbers than the previous 3 (or is it 4?) No Kings rallies. We marched. We chanted. There were inspiring signs and multi-person puppets, as well as the famous band of Portlanders in frog costumes and quite a few dinosaurs. The clouds parted and the sun shone. And we dropped off our ballots on the way there! Going to another neighborhood rally at 5 pm!
Yes, I think the turnout for rallies was smaller because, as I understand it, many of the organized events were hyperlocal and focused more on voter turnout than protest messaging. Way to go Portland! Go you! I’ll drop my ballot off on Monday.
“…think corduroy. That’s right, I said corduroy.”
Funny, especially today. I’d always been told that the word corduroy breaks down to “corde du roi,” or fabric of the king. The internet however says the etymology is less precise, dubious in fact. MW even says corde du roi is “fanciful.”
Those pix you uploaded to your Facebook from your participation in Saturday’s No Kings event are out of this world! No Kings, even in cord du roi, says the internet.
That’s so interesting about cord du roi! I’ve never been able to wear it very well myself (pants, at least… maybe a blazer would work?) and am open to ideas.
We should all be able to clothe ourselves in the fabric of kings (metaphorically, if not literally)!
I had been told the same! I have put the photos from FB here. On we go, in honor of democracy.
How fun!! I hope you had a fantastic time, Lisa, and wish I could have been there. The solidarity and buoyancy at these events is so deeply healing. There’s nothing like (physically!) being part of something meaningful that’s so much bigger than we are — and feeling seen, especially if we ordinarily do not.
Would love a few photos if you can share them!! Hope your weekend’s been happy and hopeful. ❤️
Thank you, Jess. Photos are up. I agree, solidarity and buoyance at once. Also grounded while hopeful.
Buoyance. Thank you for the gentle correction. :) I haven’t been sleeping well at all either.
Neither early voting nor mail-in voting is allowed here, and photo ID is required at the polls — they’ve made it as hard as they can for many people to vote. That’s so upsetting, but I hope everyone does everything they can.
Oh, in fact, you were right and mine was a typo! At least I’m pretty sure xoxox
Your writing is not only informative but also incredibly inspiring. You have a knack for sparking curiosity and encouraging critical thinking. Thank you for being such a positive influence!
My apologies, but I cannot tell if you are a person or a commercial link poster!
Bot or not, the poster is absolutely correct. Thank you, Lisa! And for the heartening photos, as well. Here’s to (with deepest hope) better sleep come November.
Thank you for the addition of pictures – those are delightful!
There will be so much cleanup once the nightmare is over, but man, I am EXCITED about getting that cleanup going smoother with cleanup efforts being *helped* by the government instead of hampered at every turn – having to deal with being slammed with continuous violence and vandalism and theft and threats [and arrests, and murders, and theft] by the government and having to try to figure out what *new* illegal things they’ll be doing so as to make plans to block, say, the theft of voting machines.
Cannot wait to get back to the days when mostly, at least locally, it was different people having different but still mostly-good priorities! YES let’s have good conversations about pedestrian access vs. disability accommodation! YES let’s figure out the right percentage of park space to focus on teen use vs. small children vs. seniors vs. sports, instead of… razing public parks to put in private golf courses. YES let’s figure out the delicate balances for worker protections/pay and tax levels and try to make small businesses viable instead of… giant bribes allowing monopolies and tariffs and monopolies killing small businesses and the erosion of worker pay and rights and the increased punishment of whistleblowers.
We’ll keep picking up the litter and putting it in the can because that remains important, but MAN I cannot wait for the day when it’s just the average relatively-small amount of garbage dropped by unthinking people or who forgot their coffee cup was on top of the car when they drove off, or by people whose bag/whatever blew away from them in an unexpected wind gust, instead of garbage being deliberately dumped everywhere to “own the libs” or to make a quick buck at the expense of public good.
I would love it if this election did a lot of good. I know even if the current majority becomes a minority, there will still be a lot of legal and other challenges to get to Decent Functional Government again, and boggling amounts of public funds and public resources have already been given away and wasted and stolen, so it’ll be uphill anyway to get to a more stable, acceptable status, but YES we can keep going even if it’s hard!
YES! Yes we can. I love your metaphor. It’ll be easier to clean up once garbage stops raining on our heads every day all day, but still very very hard work.