Peaceful Rally/Protest Was Calm, Low Key And Hot

I walked on down to the peaceful protest/ rally with some Panola Street friends and their kids at the bandstand last Friday. It was really calm and low key and super hot. There was musical entertainment. I’m going to count the truck that drove by and laid on their horn for a full 20 seconds while the Chief of Police spoke as musical entertainment. The guy on stage playing a guitar was much better, in my personal opinion, but really anything can be an instrument these days if you so wish. 

Unfortunately a car horn has just one note so I think maybe the car horn guy should team up other people who have car horns ( of different notes) and form a band to put out a more effectual musical production.

It was nice to see everyone there. I’ve missed crowds while in quarantine and even though everyone was wearing big cloth masks across their heads and there was no hugging in reunion or standing close enough to even carry on a decent conversation through gathered strips of hot and humid fabric, I did appreciate just the general feel of a crowd. It’s not lost on me that mere weeks ago people in this country were forced by law to have their parents and loved ones die alone and now we can gather en mass while someone plays the car horn. 

I think about that a lot. I see it all as a horrible mash up of unstoppable natural phenomenon where black and white thinking won’t cut it. To get it right in your mind, you’ve got to see truths in uncomplimentary shades of gray. And sometimes even that doesn’t work and it never sits right in your mind.

I left the rally early and missed what my friend referred to as “the good part” which involved another pick up truck interlude, this time with singing (wait….maybe she said yelling?) instead of car horn. Either way, I was sad to have missed it as I love a weird moment. I’m also sad that people can’t let other people do their thing without showing out like a lunatic.

I will say, “Abolish the Police” is intense branding. I know it’s supposed to be, that’s the point. But I think it’s a perfectly fair and understandable reaction for some people to be like, “Wait, what?!” 

And I think condescending sarcasm toward people truly asking what defunding the police means helps nothing and no one. But you’ve got to wait for the nuanced answer, if you ask. If that doesn’t satisfy you on even some micro-level then go ahead with your car horn, I guess, if the passion so moves you. But I know there’s some overlap in terms of solution in it all and that’s where reform can start.

Back to car horns: Sunday morning I was sitting in my living room eating eggs and toast and reading the news when I kept hearing what sounded like a car horn. I figured at first that someone was waiting in a driveway to give a ride and was letting the person know they were there. But the horn kept on honking for a while so I grew concerned that maybe someone needed help. 

I walked outside to check and when I opened my backdoor a symphony of sound was blasting forth from Spring Hill North Missionary Baptist Church, right through my backyard and into my kitchen. I couldn’t see the church due to kudzu but I could hear an amplified preacher doing his thing and the more his voice raised the more the car horns sounded. It was all so very reassuring; to hear car horns sounded in joy.