I confess, back in the heady days of Y2K, I got a little carried away (“a little?” — Mr. Mo would say). I hearkened back to my Mormon “year’s supply” roots and stocked up on some food and water (note: do not stack plastic gallon jugs of water on top of one another), and bought a generator. Ironically enough, we spent New Year’s Eve 1999 about a thousand miles away from our home stash, awaiting the end of the world as we knew it by enjoying our friends’ hot tub and playing Monopoly.
The generator was not such a terrible purchase, even taking into account that I don’t think I had bought any fuel for it. Maybe I thought I’d siphon off some gas from the car, assuming this particular generator didn’t require an oil-gas mix. (Big assumption.) Anyway, less than two years later, we moved to France. I donated what we hadn’t used of the food (+ the shelving) to a local food bank, and the generator to the Red Cross for use in Central America following a natural disaster. (By then, I’d long since cleaned up the mess that occurred from my having stacked plastic gallon jugs of water on top of one another.)
I honestly don’t think there will be any need for a gas mask tomorrow, as I join hopefully many thousands of people here in the Seattle area in protesting Trump’s neofascist administration, ICE’s refusal to honor due process, the ghastly Republican budget (the list, as you all know, goes on, alas). But given my health, I want to be prepared in the off-chance that things get out of hand.
There is a far greater chance that I will use the bullhorn to make my (speaking and singing) voice heard and to help with the chants and so on. I am sure my feet will hurt after the march from the Capitol Hill neighborhood arrives at Seattle Center (where the Space Needle dwelleth in its glory). And, too, as I have said before (here and on other social media), I am honestly afraid, and I’d much rather be spending my Saturday doing something else. But I cannot think of anything more important to do than to come together with my fellow human beings and resist, even in this small way, the evil that Trump and his sycophantic enablers and supporters are relentlessly trying to impose on our country.
May we all be safe tomorrow. May our numbers persuade others to join us and persuade politicians at all levels to choose to support the Constitution. May we be heard.
