Dark Skies

Portland is gearing up for Pride weekend (see Crystal Ballroom marquee), and I have had to put my Medium article aside once again because so much is going on. The white nationalist men of the Alt Right have promised to disrupt our Pride events. Sue and I plan to attend the Trans March on Saturday and document, hoping to help ensure the safety of our Trans community by standing in solidarity and using our cameras. There will actually be three Pride marches: a Trans March Saturday afternoon, a Dyke March Saturday evening, and the massive Gay Pride March Sunday. Everyone is on high alert for all three.

Meanwhile June 14 is the National Day of Protest against the administration’s “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy: the decision to separate children from their parents, including those parents seeking asylum, when the parents are arrested for entering the USA. The Buddhist Peace Fellowship of Portland, which Sue and I are part of, offers a silent walking meditation around the ICE building in Portland every second Thursday of the month. We’ve been doing this for a year now, and this month our event coincides with that National Day of Protest. Both MoveOn (a politically moderate organization aligned with the Democratic Party) and an organization called Families Belong Together have recommended our protest as the Portland action to attend, so we expect it to be a much larger group than usual. So far our event has not attracted Alt Right counter-protesters. 

One more thing. As some of you may remember, I was visited by a Chickadee a few days ago. The reason I was holding my phone when the Chickadee came to me is that I was being interviewed by a wonderful young journalist named Kelly Kenoyer, who was just featured in a Guardian article about Alt Right violence in Portland. Here's the article she wrote, including some input from me, after the interview.

My apologies for this back-blip from yesterday. Not much of a photo, made from inside my car. It is the only photo I made in that 24 hours, as I am rushing around taking care of last-minute preparations. Now it’s Thursday morning and I’m expecting an intense day!