oh wait, whales have live births

It turns out the whale I photographed and put into South Africa Cape Town was pregnant!! Karen showed me yesterday. It was the easiest of births. 

This morning I got to see loads of frogs! Usually, they quiet down when people are near but they were so horny this morning they kept going. I saw a couple looking at them. Then I took a bunch of pictures of them. I saw a very cute family and told the parents that if their children wanted to see frogs, today was the day. In their exploration, I got to see even more of them. I asked if I could take their picture and they agreed, laughing at the idea of them photographed in masks. 

I spent some of the morning working and much of the afternoon trying to figure out how to donate to efforts in Portland. There is a group called Riot Ribs that feeds the hungry, including protesters. They only took #CashApp, which I'd never even heard of before. It turned out they had stopped accepting donations as they'd received <drumroll> over $300,000 and they didn't know how to spend it all. There are some other groups that only take this CashApp thing or Venmo, which I also don't know how to work. Trying to figure it out, and failing, left me quite cranky, especially as I wanted to accomplish things today. Fortunately, a lovely walk in the woods, with birds and frogs creating a symphony cheered me immensely. 

In my relentless, insufferable focus on the positive, ever more people are coming out. We have the brave souls who have been protesting for weeks and weeks and now we have a group of moms. Who would attack moms? Well, the group of either immigration agents or private mercenaries, that is who. So then a group of dads with leaf blowers joined. And last night and tonight a group of veterans. And a group of teachers. Kendall reports that there is also a group of lawyers. Tonight (a Saturday), even more people are expected to turn out. People are taking photographs and videotaping and live-streaming, which makes it easier to get the truth out. 

As I mentioned, I wasn't here for the Civil Rights movement, but I was taught that America's opinion changed as they watched well-dressed, peaceful people attacked with dogs and water hoses. Televised images were essential. In addition to the world, Americans are watching. I recognize all the similarities with what the administration is doing and the fascist rise in Germany, but Americans are not as well behaved as that era of Germans. That history serves as a warning to us and many of us are heeding it. In addition, we don't like to be pushed around. The press didn't enjoy being attacked by police these past few months. The military is refusing to participate in more stunts after the debacle at the church last month. 

There is at least as much reason to hope as to despair, especially if we join.