I am 66 years old and participated in my first protest march today. It was all very peaceful and relatively quiet. There was a good turn out although being in the middle of it I have no idea how many people were there. We marched down Commercial Street from 12th to 7th and then east one block and then south again two more blocks.
At the end point there was a gathering with speakers. We all kneeled for 8 minutes and 45 seconds in honor of the time George Floyd had a knee on the back of his neck. Afterwards there were speakers. Jim and I were towards the back of the crowd and couldn’t hear what was being said.
We left before the speakers were done. I was hot and my heart rate was really fast. We walked back up Commercial Street to return to the college to get to where we parked the car.
I was impressed with the number of young people that came out. There was a nice showing of us older people too. Lots of people along the route were handing out cold bottles of water. At the gathering point on Campus they were handing out face masks and bottles of water. Several protesters pulled coolers full of water to hand out.
We were interviewed by a reporter from the college’s newspaper. He took my picture with my sign. My sign said “This mother heard George Floyd’s cry for help”.
Not sure anything will change as a result of the protest today. I read some of the comments on the article the local radio posted and several of them didn’t get the point at all. Racism is alive and well in Emporia, KS. Now I need to figure out what Step 2 is for me. I need to step up and do my part as we need change on many levels so that all people feel safe and are heard and seen.
When we got back to the car we went to Walmart to pick up a few things. I had broken a pair of scissors and needed a replacement pair. I also needed some low dose aspirin as my doctor recommended I start taking one a day. We picked up a big sack of dog food and a couple other things Jim needed.
Came home and haven’t done much this afternoon. I fell asleep in my chair for a bit. Need to go out and do chicken chores and make sure the girls have enough water. It is a hot one today.
I contacted my neighbor and she is going to come start getting chickens this Sunday. She will take five a day until she gets them all processed next week. I was going to clean out the chicken coop tonight or early tomorrow morning but will wait now until the chickens are gone to do it. I plan on getting baby chickens when we get back from CO the end of July.
I have the linens from the two bedrooms upstairs done. Need to do rugs from the two bathrooms upstairs and then start on the beds downstairs. I am a slug this afternoon though and not feeling like I want to move much. May not get anything done today.
I volunteered for three hours on the Crisis Hot Line last night. The first caller disengaged when I pushed him to problem solve. The second one was a satisfying call to me as I was able to get her some relief. I spend most of my time waiting for texters to interact with. I was able to copy and paste which I couldn’t last night. Now I need to figure out why the sound alert when I get a texter isn’t working. I have it turned on. The volume works on other things on the computer. I’m sure it is some small thing that I need to fix but can’t figure out what it is. I’ll keep playing with it.
I have some hamburger thawed for tonight. I’ll probably just fix plain hamburgers with it. We both enjoy that and it will make dinner easy. We picked up a few more corn on the cob for Jim to eat. I’ll fix me another vegetable to go with mine.
It is in the mid 90’s today and hot and humid out. The A/C doesn’t turn off for long before it turns right back on again. The back of my shirt was wet when we got back to the car today. I rarely sweat like that. Not sure we will take a walk this evening.
Grateful for the organizers of the protest today, grateful for all that were passing out bottles of water in support of the walkers, and grateful to have A/C and a cool house to come home to.