A skateboarder in Kiener Plaza downtown. Boards came on the scene when I was in high school in the 1960s. My friends and I used to grab ours and head for the NY subway early Saturday mornings, hoping to find an empty first or last car. If we were in luck, we would try to slalom through the vertical poles while the train was moving. Lots of bruises but fortunately no lost teeth.
The president and his sycophants claim that the people at the No Kings rallies in every state were left wing loonies [sic], Hamas agitators, Antifa operatives (as if such an organization exists, while we are reminded that every American soldier who fought in World War II was antifa) or cranky, out of touch geezers (like me). All lies, and yet more lies.
In general, I think that mixing religion and politics creates a volatile brew. Your reaction may depend on whether you support or oppose the point being made this way, but in either case rational analysis suffers. Using religion with satire is maybe not so bad.
And that was the universal tone at No Kings. No America haters, just people who want to preserve the values of our democracy. And it was the same all across the country.
St. Louis’ No Kings protest spilled out of Kiener Plaza to the edge of Market Street, downtown’s main east-west thoroughfare. Lots of passing motorists honked their approval, even a city fire truck.
As with everywhere across the country, many protestors at No Kings day wore absurd inflatable costumes. It’s known as tactical frivolity. As the writer Gary Shteyngart said in the New York Times,
it shows the absurdity of the charge that all the protesters are armed militants. In contravention of the Trump administration’s claims that the protesters were all Hamas agents or antifa interns, the protest [in Chicago] was wholesome, nonaggressive and almost shockingly middle-of-the-road. It’s hard to call an inflatable chicken dangerous.
By the way, axolotls are Mexican.
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
Another image from the No Kings demonstration in downtown St. Louis. It was scheduled to go from 2 to 5. I got there at 1:30 as a brief shower broke out. By 2:45 Kiener Plaza was very crowded, my old creaky spine was wearing out and I was soaked in perspiration. I left but people continued to stream in. Only the next day did I learn that thousands more arrived and began a march many blocks long along the adjacent main avenue. I missed it but it’s a consequence of getting old.
And by the way, Mr. Twain, it doesn’t.
There were at least six No Kings rallies around the metro area yesterday but the big one was downtown. I got there early and Kiener Plaza was already busy. By 40 minutes after the official starting time it was so crowded I could hardly get a clear shot, yet people were still streaming in. As of late Saturday night I have not seen an estimate of the number of people but it must have been well over a thousand. More to come.
Today is the last day of Hanukkah. For the first time this year, our main downtown square has a large menorah. There has been a Christmas tree, put up by the Salvation Army, in the same area for decades (still there, to the right of the frame). Of course, this is particularly poignant in these times, but the horrors on all sides leave me feeling particularly bleak.
Back in The Lou looking for images. A main downtown plaza has a smallish event called Winterfest. There is a temporary ice rink and clear plastic heated igloos for four people that cost $200 for 90 minutes, $35 more if you want S'Mores. This little worn trailer is the bar. The company that runs it is called Pour Decisions.
That's how it feels to many of us in St. Louis when we are out in the street, and certainly in much of the rest of the country. The picture is a bit of a tease, though. This locally famous statue in a downtown plaza is in the middle of a fountain whose water is colored for various occasions. Looks like a hot foot, though.
It happens to all of us who walk around with a big camera. It gets people's attention and starts a conversation, leading to a request for a photo. I met this group when I took Ellie back to the ice rink at Winterfest yesterday. Three of them were wearing variations of the jersey of the local hockey team, the St. Louis Blues (hence the "blue note" logo).
However, the man in the back was wearing a jacket with the emblems of the English Premier League football team, Arsenal. The woman in yellow is from Manchester, England. She told me she is a strong supporter of the Manchester City team and that Manchester United "stinks."
