Priority

On protests and budding Marshall Law

I live in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles. The Good Husband and I, Los Angeles Dodger’s fans for decades, have partial season tickets. Lately we’ve been up and down the tendrils of freeways connecting here and there a couple times a week. After we saw them play last Thursday, the boys in blue travelled to St. Louis so we weren’t in the fray that broke out in L.A.

But a friend was.

She called from Slauson Avenue, having gotten off the stand-still highway — take your pick — 405-105-110 — to encounter road closure after road closure despite using an incredibly reliable, recently updated navigation system. Scared, she asked me to find an alternate path around the pandemonium.

I sat in my studio using the real-time traffic website SigAlert and local news sites to guide her toward a manageable route. She eventually got home, hours past the time she should have. We texted several times more, sorting feelings and fears and then, exhausted, called it a night.

From most local accounts, peaceful protests were the norm. But when the regular flow of traffic is shut down in a large metropolitan area, when roads are blocked or closed, and businesses and streets are suddenly occupied by officers in full tactical gear, large groups of people are affected. Fear and anxiety grows.

It has begun.

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Priority

…

I rose before the sun’s shine

coaxed steaming tendrils

from balcony’s floor.

Threw open the door.

…

I sunscreened, brushed my teeth,

brewed Yorkshire tea,

then melted in the grip

of adoration, size 3T.

…

News of the world,

plans to march for liberty,

must wait,

briefly.

…

Now – just now –

I’m where I need to be,

refueling and refining,

adding to memory.

…

Focused

on the Why I march

fiercely, lovingly,

for Democracy.

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Additional resources:

Krista Tippett’s The On Being Project

On Being’s new series called The Hope Portal

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from An American / Letters from An American Podcast

Journey to American Democracy video series