Pure Verb

"I ate the day

Deliberately, that it's tang

Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb."

--Seamus Heaney

There we were, slowly making our way with the crowd at the Women's March on Washington, when my sister showed me this quote from poet Seamus Heaney. I felt quickened, I want to be pure verb. Our feet moved forward, part of a river of verbs, fellow citizens quickened by the tang of our drive to prevent the new President from changing our country into its worst self. We were quickened to awaken others, to march and chant and sing our commitment to maintaining America's ideals and its promise of equality and justice for all. 

I am starting this photo-journal of the day with MILCK's beautiful song, "I Can't Keep Quiet". Play it, and keep it playing as you look through the pictures. 

Credit for this pic goes to the Women's March on Washington Facebook Page

Sis, #woke!

Eight years ago, I had attended President Obama's first inauguration. That crowd was enormous. At 4 a.m., the Metro was packed with people, making it difficult to get on and get off the trains. At the stops near the mall, you had to push yourself off the train and into the pool of people snaking their way toward the escalators to lead us out of the tunnel. It took an hour to move from the car to the turnstile. The street was just as densely crammed, yet everyone was civil. Everyone was excited. Everyone was a bit hushed in anticipation. It was freezing, but we didn't notice. That crowd was largely African American. It was one of the greatest days of my life, being part of that crowd on that day.

This Women's March crowd was the closest in number that I have witnessed. My friends and I were stunned by the numbers, I had something substantial to compare it to and I knew this was big. We managed to get within view of the Jumbotron located between the Air and Space Museum and the Hirschorn Pavillion. Independence Avenue was clogged with people from the Capitol all the way to 17th Street. It was insane--in a good way.

It was clear the city police had not anticipated the masses, either.

There was little crowd control, and you had to be careful not to get crushed in the tide of people moving as close as they could to the Jumbotrons broadcasting the rally stage.

It took quite a bit of time to cross a street, pushing your way through the throng.

We decided that the crush was not comfortable and moved back toward the mall. It too, was filled with people milling about, holding their posters, taking pictures, and trying to figure out where to go. There were numerous humorous signs, as well as those intended to dis the new President. Many of the signs were powerful. Some were personal. However, most addressed specific issues around equality and justice, respect for science and the environment, and of course, reproductive rights. Many, including the hats, were a defiant statement to the crassness shown by our President when discussing his habits of assaulting women.

Turns out the crowd was so overwhelming that it had filled the march route! The streets were packed with people. We decided to move toward 14th street, just north of the Washington Monument, and jump into the march--well, the impromptu march that started in an attempt to move folks. 

At times, the chants and singing were led by people I would assume were active in the '60s protest movements, singing songs by Peter, Paul, and Mary and Woodie Guthrie. It gave us a chuckle to hear younger adults and teens saying, "What is THAT song? I don't know it." Sometimes the chants were current, "Show me what democracy looks like!" and the return call, "This is what democracy looks like!" Then, there were the chants aimed at this President, "We want a leader, not a creepy tweeter!" 

Many of the marchers were children. I can only imagine how it might impact their lives to be part of something so big at such a young age. 

These two were adorable and full of energy. A young woman heard them leading chants and let them use her miniature megaphone. 

They chanted, "Show me what democracy looks like! And, the crowd responded, "This is what democracy looks like!" Also, "We need a leader, not a creepy tweeter!"

Streets of humanity melded with other streets of humanity as we made our way to the White House. 

This guy led chants as we approached the African American History Museum.

People marched for a myriad of reasons.

When we got to the Ellipse in front of the White House, we milled around for a bit and then started back to our friend's house. We headed up Pennsylvania Avenue and ran smack dab into another stream of marchers!

 As we moved against the tide, we got a chance to watch and marvel and feel so grateful to be part of this movement.

Thanks for this pic, Mel!

Now, it is time to keep the momentum going. As refugees get discriminated against, despite having gone through intensive vetting; as Mexicans feel the need to defend themselves against our President's insulting behavior; as scientists are censored and silenced; it is imperative upon us to advocate for them.

#resist We have only just begun.

New Year; New Start

The 2016 Presidential election has rocked me to my core. I am not the same person I was prior to it. I am not the only one, either. There are tens of millions of us and we are shaken. Honestly. I will find the attribution, but somewhere I saw the tweet, "Knowing your President has behaved worse than anyone you know is wounding to the soul." 

It sure is.

This blog never was going to be about politics. I know that is not "cool". Politics are divisive and dirty. I started out wanting to write about Maine and post pictures of its beauty and describe how it inspires me. I had just started cooking (at age 55) and thought it might be fun to document that. Though, now I realize how glutted the internet is with food blogs and so many hundreds of people have food stories so much more useful than mine. 

I found myself not writing as much as I thought I would. I found myself sitting in front of the computer with nothing much to say. 

Here's the secret. My passion has ALWAYS been the world, our nation, the intersection of the two, and the ways our country can be closer to the ideal under which it was created. When I was 10-13, I read every book on the Holocaust. I dreamed of ending the civil war in Ireland, I thought that I could contribute to world peace as a member of the foreign service. I know. Delusions of a child. But, I was a child of the Vietnam War era. I wasn't old enough to be directly affected--to have friends or family who were drafted, but it colored my world. The evening news telegraphs were gruesome. The anti-war demonstrations were raging, even in my quiet mid-western city. There was a poster in the lobby of my school tracking the status of siblings of students who were in the war--different colored stars next to their name delineating whether they were okay, injured, or had been killed. I was an anxious child and this was an anxious time. 

As I moved through high school, that anxiety led me to feel I couldn't handle being in the foreign service, that I didn't have what it took to work in Washington, DC. That I would hate that life of meetings and social gatherings and living in cities where I knew no one. So, I buried that passion and pursued "safer" alternatives. My first career was as a teacher (special education and than as a sixth grade teacher). My second career as a social worker. You can see the focus on careers that I deemed "helping society" remained. But, those bigger dreams were packed away.

However, not completely forgotten.

Politics has always interested me. I volunteered for election activities. But, I never got too involved or dared to run for a local office. Then, Barack Obama ran for President. Everything changed for me. The lids came off those boxes of dreams and hopes. I got more involved with his election, with protesting Sarah Palin, with making phone calls (which was BRUTAL for me with my social anxiety). I did it because he inspired me to. I joined my local Democratic committee. I was a precinct captain. I started to follow politics more intensely and thoroughly. I watched him inherit the worse conditions of any President in my lifetime and he faced it bravely with dignity, grace, and intelligence. He tried to be bi-partisan, nominating some Republicans to his cabinet, picking his primary adversary as his Secretary of State. He persevered in the face of unprecedented opposition (GOP members of Senate and House pledging to oppose ANYTHING he tried to do--and upholding their pledge even when it meant voting against stimulus programs to provide jobs for Americans out of work and losing their homes in the Great Recession). He faced their noxious partisanship and went to work, anyway. The economy is good (yes, it could be better, but given the time we live in, it is good). Housing markets are back on track. Employment is the highest in a decade. The median income increased for the first time since the '90s. Things seemed on track. Yes, with pockets of deep trouble; but certainly there has been massive improvement since 2009. 

Now, we have Donald Trump, a man who bragged about assaulting women (how that wasn’t a deal-breaker is beyond me), who provided a platform for the white nationalist movement, who lumped all Mexican immigrants into a category of "rapists". "They're bad, bad people." This man who chose as his Vice President a man who has never accomplished anything in the Senate or Congress, but who as Governor of Indiana tried to pass discriminatory legislation that was so blatant it was overturned in Federal court. Mike Pence spends his life trying to impose his religious values onto the rest of us and works to limit women's rights. Someone used the term, “Christian Supremicist,” and that seems to apply.

Donald Trump stands to profit from his foreign policy and domestic policy decisions because he will not divest his business interests. He will not show us his tax returns. He will not let us know what connections he has to Russia. Donald Trump is nominating people to cabinet positions whose ideologies are in opposition to the departments they could direct. He lies and then denies the lies, even when there are video tapes to confirm the truths. He rules by tweet and spits in the face of nepotism concerns by having his children sit in on meetings with foreign dignitaries and domestic business leaders; whose sons will continue to carry on business dealings with foreign entities who might be using those business dealings to curry favor with out President. He lost the popular vote by more than any President elected ,(he had 2.8 million fewer people vote for him), is now going to lead this country. 

"Having your President behave worse than anyone you know is wounding to the soul." Amen.

How do those of us with wounded souls cope with our grief and bitter disappointment? How do we walk among our fellow citizens knowing that people who do good things, who are generous, whom we have known as children we played with, how do we reconcile that they voted for someone who has done repulsive, inhumane things? How do we reconcile that they did not feel it imperative to draw a line against repulsive behavior? It wasn't clear at first. Even pundits seemed bereft. But, the engines are beginning to start back up. 

There is the Women's March on Washington on January 21. I will be there with friends and my sister. There is the Youtube concert during the inauguration--with all the stars that refused to perform for the incoming President. There is MoveOn.org; OurRevolution.org; Indivisible.org; and the gifted comedians/performers who are going to shine a light on the workings of this new administration--Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert. There is an incredible new NPR program called 1A, which will provide a forum for civilized discussion and debate between people of different viewpoints--which I absolutely support. We have to be able to talk to each other, to hear each other, to listen actively as Diane Rehms stated in her last show. 

"Not everything faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed if it is not faced." James Baldwin

These are important and turbulent times. The lids are off my boxes and this blog will now reflect that. There will still be pictures of Maine and maybe even some recipes. But, there will be politics and my thoughts on domestic and world events. 

Maybe I will be grateful that Donald Trump was elected, because it forced me to overcome my anxieties and to let my true self out. 

New Year's Snow and Snowshoe

I wish I believed in omens, because snow at the start of the New Year, seems like it could be one. Snow makes winter tolerable for me. It also makes it stunning. The spindrift this morning created a fog-like effect. 

Later I got out for my first snow shoe this year. Loved it!