Life of Wry

Yes, I’m demoralized by the prospect of four years of madness (at least two and then who knows). Yes we are drowning in a blizzard of sickening executive orders, insults, affronts and assaults from all sides. Yes it feels all doomsdayish and yes I’ve considered where we might have to move (Canada) if we continue on this authoritarian path.

But today. Today was a respite from the despair.

Steve M swung by at 9:30 and we repurposed some signs from marches-past. Then we picked Chris up and headed to the Federal Building at I and 5th in downtown Sac to meet (we hoped) with Senator Padilla’s field staff. We and about 300 others (!) … who, in a matter of days responded to an impromptu call-to-action from a woman in San Diego who stepped up to organize this meeting at the suggestion of Indivisible leaders in that crazy-inspiring Zoom call last Sunday night that drew 53,000 attendees!

People are setting their hair on fire (when they’re not burrowing deep under the covers) and desperado to do something about the insanity overwhelming every dem from coast to coast.

We showed up at 10:30 and were so thrilled to see a large crowd, which grew and grew. We listened to Irene (the woman from San Diego), who led us in chants (sure, okay). She instructed us to write our key question and/or issue on a Post-it. Originally, the idea was to attach all the Post-its to Padilla’s office door, as his staff had been MIA for days (uncertain why). However, the staff had gotten wind of the gathering and showed up and, to their credit, were attentive/responsive to the crowd. Well, that’s their job. Many of us waited for our turn to address staff, which was satisfying. I liked the face-to-face.. after a few weeks of phone messages.

The value of all of this is that Padilla’s staff conveys the energy, urgency of the crowd to the Senator, which, supposedly, influences their decision making. The other benefit is all the PR that comes out of this.. photos that get circulated, social media posts that spread through networks of tags… this is what democracy looks like (as the chant goes).

So this was wildly successful.

Here are a few pics of that:

Rebekka questioning staff about the breach of the US Treasury Department computer system by Elon Musk and his merry band of programming geeks.

THEN.. most of us left the Federal Building and headed the 10-ish blocks to the Capitol for the a bigger rally. This was sponsored by some group who’d organized an action at all 50 state capitols. Turns out it was hugely successful. There were sizeable gatherings in all 50 states — some marches, some rallies — and they all got great press coverage.

Here are some pics of that.

Sacramento had one of the larger turnouts across the country:

This was, like so many of these events, a sign-fest!

Here are some Davis folks we met up with at the Capitol.. heard there were tons, but we obvs didn’t see them all.

Hoping that this trend of engagement and pushback continues. It’s going to be a long and head-bonking few years, so .. more of this, please!