Observations from the Big March

• Many signs called for Abolish ICE.  I myself don’t know enough about ICE and its functions.  Agree I don’t like the vibe at the moment.  Not enthused about letting the current prez start any new forces?  What about “re-vibe ICE”?

• Not a sign guy but if I were maybe I’d go with “return to a loosey-goosy, live and let live style of border enforcement that reflects reality and shared humanity.”

• One of the few speakers I heard most of was from the American Indian Movement.  She focused on the raping and misery aspects of California’s mission history and the history of Los Angeles.  While there’s an important place for that history to be considered, I felt this was a bummer approach, and contrary to the goal of gathering, organizing, mobilizing, and inspiring large numbers of people.  Though I myself had nothing to do with the raping of California’s native people, and retroactively disapprove of it, hard not to feel a little bit judged for enjoying the California which has emerged.  Legislating the crimes of two hundred years ago can be cathartic, but I’m afraid the villains at this point have largely escaped justice.  The goal here is to get a lot of people together and united, right?

• Way too many speakers.  That’s probably a problem as old as public protest.

• Didn’t see Garcetti but watched his speech later.

Lame. The current Democratic officeholders seem very unsure of where they stand on anything.  Give me confident assurance of anything over hedging and options traders.  Where is LA’s Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez?

Why do we not have an even younger, cooler, and more stylish socialist?  This is LA, baby!

dawg you gotta fix this

• Damn, Maxine Waters:

If you shoot me, you better shoot straight. There’s nothing like a wounded animal,” she said.

• Downtown LA is coming up, but man.  There are not enough shelters and safe spaces for LA’s population of homeless, semi-homeless, and deranged outsiders.  More green parks where a person could get some shade would be a good start.

•  One second after I’d been thinking, “smart move to have lots of American flags here,” heard someone loudly say (paraphrase) “uh, the American flag is part of the problem.  Good thing there’s 5,000 of them here!”  Though I’m disgusted at recent desecration of the American flag, I think, more often than not, the American flag has been a positive symbol.

NASA/Charlie Duke. C’mon guys, let’s focus on the positive.

(is the USA the only country where the anthem is a song about how beautiful the flag is?)