Making history, and launching the resistance

Where have I been? Yesterday Sparkle Moose and I were making history in Washington, D.C. We were packed in with the hundreds of thousands well north of the official Women's March zone, far out of range of the jumbotrons or the sound system. We ended up in the flow that filled Pennsylvania Avenue and its sidewalks (outside the permitted limits, and almost a half mile north of the scene below) with solid, moving people from the Capitol to the White House grounds, with fresh masses coming on and on for hours.

A panoramic view of Independence Avenue from end to end, far south of where we were.

 
At one point we squeezed ourselves in front of the Trump International Hotel (and its police lines), holding up Moose's "Trump = Traitor" sign in front of the black-and-gold marquee, and getting photographed by waves of cell phones from the onward flow.

My own sign urged, "Build your COURAGE, DARING, AND SMARTS." As inspiration for the... active times ahead.

I've been to giant DC demonstrations in the past and I have never seen anything like this in my life. For most of the day all directions were a mass of people as far as the eye could see, a great haze of pink from the pussyhats, under tens of thousands of hand-drawn signs. We filled, from end to end and north to south, nearly every area of the Capitol Mall, its flanking avenues, and the Federal Triangle district to the north that was not fenced off or blocked by cops. Who were quite friendly and low-key — I guess they know how to assess a crowd. Someday we can proudly tell our grandkids, "We were there."

But the most important part of this event, and the hundreds of others nationwide, was not about showing the world a demonstration. It was about finding ourselves and seeing our solidarity and strength.

Nope, the America we know and love is not lost yet.  The Resistance is launched.

Polyamory in the News will resume shortly.

The Capitol Mall, more of where we weren't.

Afterward.

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