Their Names Are...

I've started this post probably 17 times. All of the thoughts and emotions I have cannot fit into a blog post. I decided this one would be about the positives and maybe I would do a followup on some of the misconceptions about the protest later on.

We stayed up too late Thursday and Friday night the week of George Floyd's death, watching video feeds of the protests. We were sad, we were angry, we were stressed, and we didn't sleep. 

During the Micheal Brown protests, we weren't really sure what our role as white people was. We wanted to help, but we didn't want to take attention away from the activists and the protesters. We gave money where we could and we spent our money at BLM bars and restaurants.  

We've had time to digest essays written by the activists outlining how we can be supportive and we learned that we should've been there, arm and arm with our neighbors, showing solidarity. 

We had long discussions. We've spent all of this time and effort being incredibly careful about Covid 19. We've spent minimal time at the grocery store, no time out at bars or restaurants, and we haven't seen our friends or family in months. Were we doing to risk it all to protest?

And then there's been the violence. Police firing rubber bullets at protesters, tossing tear gas into neighborhoods, rioters breaking into buildings and looting places. It's gotten so prevalent that a Twitter thread documenting just the use of police brutality during the protests is at 500 incidents caught on video.

Our consciousnesses just wouldn't let us sit home as Twitter warriors. We took a calculated decision and ultimately decided that it was worth our lives to be on the right side of history. 

We loaded a bunch of extra water bottles and masks up, wrote our siblings phone numbers on our arm in case we were injured or arrested, setup emergency cat feeding backups, and met the group at the federal building in downtown Clayton. 

At first, there were maybe 200 people there holding various signs on either side of the street. There were a few photographers with various press credentials and a news crew. Medics showed up in scrubs with giant red crosses on their clothing. Everyone had masks and I couldn't be happier. People were still taking Covid seriously and every knew the risks, but everyone showed up.

Then the organizers showed up and took control of the crowd. They made some moving speeches, some of which we couldn't hear because the news helicopters showed up and flew low. 

Then we marched down the hill and around to Forest Park Parkway. There was a police blockade keeping traffic from us. 

We stopped, and the organizers called for any clergy to come to the front of the group. A couple dozen priests, rabbis, ministers, imams, all worked their ways through the crowd and stood arm and arm in front. The organizers also called for legal witnesses, officially designated people to make sure everyone followed the rules. 

This was the only time in the day I felt uneasy. We walked up the exit ramp to the 2 lane highway that is Forest Park Parkway. If something went wrong, there wasn't an escape at this point. There was a 100 foot drop on either side. But we marched on with our hands in the air.

We ironically were walking down this closed highway with some of the richest houses in the area flanking us on both sides. The protesters didn't cause damage, instead, invited those that were home to join them. "Out of the house, into the streets."

The organizers zig-zagged throughout the crowd, even famous Ferguson commission and Missouri House Rep Rasheen Aldrige was among the people, calling into the Mega-phone, "Show me what community looks like..." and thousands of people responding, "this is what community looks like."

We were at the protest for about 3 hours. I was trying to determine if I was going to post pictures or not, but when we got home and started looking at the internet, all I saw were comments of thuggish looters destroying local businesses. And I decided I needed to post what a positive experience our protest was. 

We went to a second protest a week later. This one in downtown St. Louis. We marched from City Hall to the Police headquarters. This time we were joined by several thousand more than the first protest. 

This feels different than the protests a few years ago. This feels like people are more invested. People are recognizing there is a societal ill, and with no direction coming from our government, the only way we're going to fix it is as a community.