I found that I am not alone in my dissention. Like many others, I have been protesting in an effort to voice my concern for the many government actions that have been cruel, dysfunctional, or unlawful.

I am a people-watcher of sorts. This tendency likely stems from time spent on the beach sitting next to my father with our feet buried in the sand, watching people pass by. A game we played required us to make up a story about the people we would briefly observe. “There’s an accountant,” one would say about a man with glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. Or of a school aged boy, we would image as a student skipping school for a much-earned mental health day on the beach. Further still would be a man with hardened forearms and gnarled hands we would cast as a brick layer taking a brief respite from his work. This exercise allowed me to observe and appreciate people in fascinating variety. It’s a practice I’ve carried forward.

I’ve noted how many elderly men and women attend protests and rallies; they are my peeps and they seem to belong to every stratum of society from the well-healed Audi driving suburbanites to the sweater-wrapped, white-haired grandmothers who are reminiscent of church ladies whom one would expect to have a faint aroma of Pine Sol about them. The signs they carry tell their stories and often impart how well informed they are. Some have been in wheel chairs and others push walkers through the rain, bitter cold, or harsh sunshine. And still they come and raise their voices so that their representatives, who have been struck deaf with fear, will hear their collective roar.

Lately I have noticed the influx of younger protesters that bring into the mix every hair color you can imagine and tattoos that can defy description. Their energy lifts us all. Their signs too tell their stories, some of which I can’t repeat here. Yet, their creativity is amazing.

I stood with my family in awe of this mixture of humanity joined in common purpose and felt the resolve. It gave rise to the hope that we will see our way through – together.

*****

Kevin Deeny