Good Trouble

It's hard to muster much of a crowd in Tucson in July, especially if the venue is outside, even if it starts at 7am.  It's that to which I am attributing the sparse turnout for today's John Lewis tribute protests.  I refuse to believe that people have stopped caring; I don't think there are a lot of tourists or residents sticking it out here in what the interweb is now calling high summer.  

I set my alarm for 6:15, was in the car by 6:35, and standing on the sidewalk with our American flag before 7.  I wasn't the first one there.  Once again, I was surrounded by my generation and a smattering of younger, LGBTQ supporting folks.  I found my friend (I live across the street; it wouldn't be right not to come.) and his chair and we spent a companionable hour or so waving flags and signs and greeting people we knew.

I left and drove across town to the concert stage at the same big park whose environs hosted past sidewalk protests.  Parking was easy, close by, right there in the parking lot, an assortment of spots foreshadowing the smaller than I'd expected crowd on the hillside and under the shade of trees on the side.  

Two event organizers spoke and then handed the microphone off to community leaders who spoke about immigrants and labor and American history until I got bored and wandered back to the sidewalk where I stood in my Good Trouble t-shirt, holding my Save the Soul of America sign, waving at passing cars, hoping to make a difference.

It's hard to get passionate about anything when it's 97 degrees at 8:15 in the morning.