A busy morning...

[deborahjross]

Quaker meeting this morning. As it's second Firstday, as the traditional appellation goes, it's Meeting For Worship For The Purpose of Business. Which means throwing together sandwiches to share so folks can have something to sustain mental processes into the afternoon. We could bring fruit or carrot sticks, but it's more prudent to make sure Dave, with his intolerance of wheat and other things, has something that won't make him sick.

However, Spirit had quite another plan for me, besides sitting in business meeting, knitting teddy bears for African orphans. Several members were going to be marching in the Occupy Santa Cruz Foreclosure march, and I felt inspired to go along. Dave stayed, so we as a household had a presence in both places.

The rally lasted rather a long time, in order to give folks who'd forgotten about Daylight Savings Time a chance to arrive. We sang new words to old protest songs, and the usual stuff. What made this event stand out in my mind was the presence of quite a few Hispanics, mostly from the Watsonville area. Families with kids, looking a bit unsure of all this protest stuff, but also determined. I take this as quite a hopeful sign. My heart goes out to them for whatever personal circumstances brought them here, and I hope they felt valued and welcomed. But this is truly a movement that crosses old categories and social groups.

Pics were up on Twitter (#occupysantacruz) but I'm not in any of them. We were toward the front of the march, holding the Quaker sign.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That sounds like an excellent thing to have done.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was tired when I got home, but had that feeling of having Done Something. Even if one particular march was not terribly effective, it all adds up. I remember being discouraged about protesting the Viet Nam War, and how you can't judge what you're doing day to day. You just have to keep the faith and carry on.