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a strange little story
I was waiting at a park that I had gradually intuited was the place a protest against family separation had been moved to. It was about ten minutes before the protest was scheduled to begin, and not all that much was happening. There was a banner, though, with an Audre Lorde quote ("Your silence will not protect you"), and a few people hanging around, including about five very buff cyclists, clustered together on their bikes.
A woman, slightly older than me, came up to me. "Is this where the protest is?" I said I thought so and made some joke about wandering around the original location in confusion.
She nodded, moved off, and then came back, remarking that it was too bad the cyclists were in the way.
"Maybe they're here for the protest," I said.
"No, they gather here every Thursday. I told them they should leave."
She said it without rancor, as if it was normal to tell people to leave a public park.
"Oh I don't know--I think they're good. They swell the crowd," I said, trying to make light of the whole thing.
"It's a problem every Thursday," she said.
Then a friend of mine showed up, and my attention went to my friend--but next to me, I heard the woman trying her anti-cyclist gambit on another person.
"I'm a cyclist," the new person said.
"But you don't understand; this is a problem every Thursday," the anti-cyclist insisted.
Annnd.... then the the leader of the cyclist group, I guess having figured that his gang were all there, announced the route they'd be riding, and off they went. They honestly could not have been more innocuous. They weren't riding around terrorizing people. They were meeting up in a public park--and then they left! The one woman's animus was so strange!
There were some good speakers at the demonstration, and some people with very good signs. I was somewhat depressed by the turnout--it was hundreds and I'd thought there might be thousands, but maybe this just means I'm out of touch. ... Anyway, onward and upward, keep trying, etc.
A woman, slightly older than me, came up to me. "Is this where the protest is?" I said I thought so and made some joke about wandering around the original location in confusion.
She nodded, moved off, and then came back, remarking that it was too bad the cyclists were in the way.
"Maybe they're here for the protest," I said.
"No, they gather here every Thursday. I told them they should leave."
She said it without rancor, as if it was normal to tell people to leave a public park.
"Oh I don't know--I think they're good. They swell the crowd," I said, trying to make light of the whole thing.
"It's a problem every Thursday," she said.
Then a friend of mine showed up, and my attention went to my friend--but next to me, I heard the woman trying her anti-cyclist gambit on another person.
"I'm a cyclist," the new person said.
"But you don't understand; this is a problem every Thursday," the anti-cyclist insisted.
Annnd.... then the the leader of the cyclist group, I guess having figured that his gang were all there, announced the route they'd be riding, and off they went. They honestly could not have been more innocuous. They weren't riding around terrorizing people. They were meeting up in a public park--and then they left! The one woman's animus was so strange!
There were some good speakers at the demonstration, and some people with very good signs. I was somewhat depressed by the turnout--it was hundreds and I'd thought there might be thousands, but maybe this just means I'm out of touch. ... Anyway, onward and upward, keep trying, etc.
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There are a lot of people intent on Enforcing The Right Things, which they always know in their entirety. Remember the women who called the police about Black People Barbequeing?
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I don't know what it was about cyclists congregating that irritated this woman--I think she said something about them blocking the sidewalk or something. But it's a temporary thing! And if someone's in your way, you can ask them politely to let you pass--but maybe that's a hard thing for her to do. Or maybe someone once was rude to her when she asked, who knows?
I think you're right that people can have an image of what's Right and Proper--which may not correspond at all to other people's, or may overlap--and then get very upset when things don't line up with it. (I mean, I get upset too, when things don't line up with my sense of right and proper...)
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(But I also don't like giving extra power to the Most Easily Miffed. And we seem to be doing a lot of that these days.)
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... And I mean, I didn't feel **that** sorry for her. Mainly she mystified me: this is a thing that bothers you?! Why?
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And boy, I don't mean to suggest that complaint in itself is a problem: I'm all about complaint about the school-to-prison pipeline and the disproportionate policing of Black people, for instance, and I said "miffed" for that reason. Your metaphor makes the distinction between sound and substance so nicely.
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*hugs you both*
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Definitely glad I went as several of the officers there knew me via crisis response, so I was in a sense one of their people, which I thinks always lends one's opinions some extra weight.
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I am glad there were people and I am glad you were one of them. I spent the entire afternoon on the phone with my insurance and could not make it to the Boston rally, which was frustrating.
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... There are so many things we have to get sorted out ...
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I belong to one of those "neighborhood" web page things. Generally it's handy for things like finding someone to do handyman work and stuff like that, but there are a few people who use it to complain about the craziest things. "Some people just drove down my street in a black car--maybe I should call the police." Stuff like that.
Some people seem more angry, intolerant, suspicious, fearful, etc. these days. A sign of the times, I guess.
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