Someday I will write a more involved book on the subject, but for present purposes let me say that in the life span of a cartoonist/activist there are many stages starting with the discovery, “Who is that artist?”, to the middle period, “There he is again. He has the greatest signs,” to the last stage when the older person shows up, and the younger people find that cute, probably just accepting that someone did not lock the door at the home, while the local newspaper reporter asks why you are at whatever the rally is, mainly because having an old guy’s opinion is ever so precious when mixed in with quotes from the twenty-somethings.

Recently, I was just supposed to be a protester, a rally-goer, a marcher, or a whatever we were that day, but, because in the article in the next day’s local newspaper covering the rally they had added the words “Seventy year old” in front of my name, just before my sloppy quote which the reporter had somewhat misheard, I had become the article’s cute old guy among the young.

I have been to all kinds of rallies and demonstrations over decades for various causes, my own rights among them, and one thing they all had in common was the moment each participant, realizing how long things were going to last, thought what a good thing it would have been had they brought a folding lawn chair.

My practice now is to show up early and bring my e-reader so I can have a book handy if people show up late, or do not show up at all, and For payments you can use debit or credit card according to your preferences and convenience. buy cialis without prescription If cheapest online cialis your pH levels for saliva and urine are also increased. You don’t need the pharmacy levitra pampering of a resort-style rehabilitation facility if you don’t have the funds for it. Man can sample viagra for free focus on performing rather than suffering from erection dysfunction and premature ejaculation Action on female reproductive system: This herb is effective in dysmenorrhea and primary amenorrhea .It increases milk secretion in lactating mothers. get a good visible spot to both see and be seen, unfold my lawn chair, and settle down for a long afternoon with my sign at the ready for when things begin.

I am not in any way infirm. I bring the chair because I have learned to do that. People spend too much time at these things looking for something to casually lean against to get some weight off their feet, and having been at one time the firebrand who might cheer on the crowd or give a speech, these days I enjoy going to show my support by being there with a good sign, and to see the younger people organizing things, although I often bite my tongue and accept that a poorly executed action will be a learning experience for the better next one. It is good to have an activist’s biggest fear expunge seeing that there will be those ready to take the baton as it is their turn to step up.

And a lot of eye-candy drives by when you stand on a corner for hours holding a sign to do what you can to make the world a better place, while also checking out who is that in that car and wishing I could only be a few decades younger.

But now I have come to that point brought on by age, when I have to play the role of the now happy old guy made so in that moment because at her mother’s insistence, some toddler brought that sweet old man over there in that lawn chair a homemade cookie.

But another, sad reality is that as much as I might pretend it is otherwise, the reality is that I fit in the stay away from large crowds, especially those not known for wearing face masks, age group now, so, although I might go to some big gathering with the ability to socially distance, like putting my chair on the fringe and watching with my sign  when such comes up, I will listen as the daily march  goes by my apartment on those few times they have changed locations and I am on a good route, and, as the spirit moves me, whip up a large political cartoon picket sign, unfold my chair, and be in it for the long (the non-mobile parts, let’s be honest) when I can.

(A Disclaimer of sorts: The other day a real and Facebook friend used the term “Bunker Boy” in a post, and I drew this picture and scheduled it to be published on my blog. In the meantime I cannot be the only person to draw such an image. So, on that theme, here is my contribution.)

Lafayette Park is in the news again.

The last time we heard anything specific about it, it was when it was cleared of peaceful protesters and the clergy gathered in Front of the Presidents’ Church helping the protesters where they were needed so that President Trump, who had just said he supported peaceful protesters, could walk to the church and have a rather awkward  photo-op of the president of law and order holding a Bible up with very uncomfortable posture..

People had a lot of negative things to say about how the peaceful protesters were treated, how disturbing the march to the church came across, and how uncomfortable Trump looked in the resulting photo.

Evangelicals praised it as yet another sign of not only Trump’s religiosity, but his near divinity.

But Lafayette Park is once again in the news, but this time, perhaps, because God finally decided to join in on the discussion and let people know His opinion on how the protesters were treated and the misuse of viagra price india There are several forums help individual giving better solution and bringing life back on the track. The penile shaft contains two erectile bodies called the corpus cavernosum, which is made of adaptogenic properties that help bodies to fight against trauma levitra india price and stress. It has hot healing and rejuvenating generic cialis djpaulkom.tv properties. lowest prices on viagra It can cure the problems of prostate and the urinary tract to prevent blockages and poor flow of blood in it. the church and Bible as a political stunt.

As Thursday rolled into Friday, two military personnel who were patrolling Lafayette Park were struck by lightning sustaining serious, but not life-threatening injuries that required hospitalization.

Apparently the Deity is none too pleased with the goings on in front of his church.

Perhaps he has joined ANTIFA.

If it wasn’t God sending the message, the only two alternatives that would be acceptable explanations are that either the Gays unleashed their mighty weather altering, natural disaster conjuring  powers,

“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our teeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulphurour and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!”

or George Soros beat them to it by hiring the elements to promote his message.

This past Sunday I was at the Black Lives Matter gathering at Union and County Streets in New Bedford. The event there was peaceful.

The Mayor and Chief of Police made an appearance.

I had arrived early so I could get a good visible spot and set up my folding patio chair since I was most likely there for the duration. While the organizer as busy on one corner and I was setting up on another, a car slowed down with a person much younger than my now undeniable senior years and yelled, “Get a job!” at me. I yelled back, “I’m retired, dumbass!,” and he moved on.

Later another car slowed down yelling, “All lives matter” in response to my Black Lives Matter sign, and I yelled back the question, “If all lives do matter, why would you have a problem with my mentioning Black ones do?”.

For most of the time of the gathering there was a lot of honking in support.

An individual in an old ratty Jeep pulled up at the light when it turned red, and revved up his engine spewing exhaust fumes mostly onto the car behind him and, when the breeze shifted, onto himself before the light turned green. The Jeep made two more pass-throughs, spewing exhaust each time he went slowly through the intersection, but sadly for him, as he went through the intersection the last time, his exhaust system couldn’t handle the pressure and his muffler and exhaust pipe fell off. The crowd allowed him his shame quietly as his Jeep sputtered to a stop by no one running over to him jeering.

After a time the assembled marched to Buttonwood Park escorted by police with the marchers staying on the sidewalk.

Since I live only a block from where the rally was, and being a senior citizen, I went to my place, got my car, and drove to the park to take part in the activity there. I arrived long before the marchers and took a video of their peaceful arrival.

Two elderly women who walked by me asked what was going on and when told about the march and the reason for it expressed their support since what had happened to George Floyd was, in their words, just wrong..

When I saw the intention was to match the perimeter of the park, I returned to my car and drove to the West side of the park to hold my sign and cheer the marchers on as they passed the parking area. Other observers there gave positive signals to the marchers.

After the marchers had passed I attempted to pull out and rejoin them at the next stopping point, but I had to wait for 6 State Trooper vehicles with blaring sirens and flashing lights to speed by to catch up to the marchers. This was on a city street and the marchers were on a city owned park sidewalk. Why were they there?

Obviously, from the verbal reactions from people standing near my car, this gave the impression the peaceful marchers who these people had just seen walk by must have done something earlier, they hadn’t, or were doing something now, they weren’t.

I was able to catch up and To cure this problem people visit spe buy discount cialist and surely get the related issue solved effectively. You are advised to practice exercises like jogging, Continued on line viagra walking, swimming and stretching. buy viagra professional This enhances sexual stimulation and actually offers better results when it comes to sexual performance in the bedroom. No cialis tadalafil tablets more wasting an entire day in a classroom setting. drove slowly behind the marchers through the park’s roadway.

The marchers remained peaceful.

At one point, I had to go around the unmarked gang unit car that had been watching with binoculars from a distance when the gathering was still at the County/Union intersection and followed at a distance as the marchers headed for the park.

When looking for a side street to park my car when the marchers had arrived at a major intersection at the corner of the park, I passed the trooper vehicles parked on a number of side streets. At least one vehicle situated itself near the marchers. There was still a NBPD presence, so there was no need for state troopers.

Their presence changed the impressions of bystanders and created tension among the marchers that had not been there prior. I was wondering if there was going to be some action on the part of the troopers.

The County Sheriff even drove by in his black SUV.

Were they there to prevent any violence from a group that had been peaceful, or change the tenor of the event and the emotions of the marchers to create a problem? The flashing blue lights had an influence on the group “vibe”.

One individual who had joined the marchers as they marched, but had not been at the Union/County location, being a bit of a pest at this time, irrelevantly loud mouthed and obviously new at demonstrations, and, I might add, a little clueless,  began to direct angry words at the trooper vehicle near the marchers. People moved close enough to her to prevent any escalation without provoking her. She was seeking the spotlight.

I took pictures and videos of the marchers at different points, but if I showed just the clip of her acting up, I could totally misrepresent what was a huge gathering of peaceful people.

While I was with them, the most nominally “disruptive” thing the demonstrators did once at each intersection around the perimeter of the park was pushing the pedestrian button and running into the street to take a knee and returning to the sidewalk when the light changed.

The only disruption to traffic, which I got on video, was the gang division’s unmarked car sitting in a left turn only lane, preventing people behind from making the turn they were signaling when they got the green arrow.

I went on my way as the marchers headed down Kempton toward the Fairhaven/New Bedford Bridge. The State Troopers left at that time as well.

Among the marchers were people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, religions, and political affiliations, all unified and peaceful.

After returning to the County Street/Union Street intersection, as darkness fell, the official gathering was ended as a precaution against any misbehavior after dark, an act that was reassuring to the community who had obviously seen activities elsewhere.

One knee sent a message. One knee killed for ignoring it.

When Colin Kaepernick took a knee before football games, he made his reason clear.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

And he showed his commitment to his action by stating,

“This is not something that I am going to run by anybody. I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. … If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”

He could not have been plainer.

A football player, who had something to say and was in a position to say it, quietly knelt during the National Anthem before NFL football games, and when he first did it he was behind his teammates and close to the Gatorade table.

He made no noise. He made no attention getting gestures. He did not bring attention to himself. He neither looted nor set anything ablaze.

He only got attention when someone published a picture of him and made the quiet loud.

After that, he knelt quietly.

His protest was peaceful.

There had been a number of unnecessary shootings of unarmed Black men by rogue police officers, and no one seemed to care. It was time to at least begin the discussion.

That discussion, however, was not going to be comfortable, or even wanted by those who could do something.

Inaction would be too obvious, so the dialogue had to be changed.

Ignoring what the man who took a knee publicly stated was his motivation , others in the While majority hijacked his action, ignored his reason, and changed it to what could help them not address the issue.

The major claim was that his action was anti-American, apparently because the unnecessary killing of Black men was an American thing.

Trump was the first to misrepresent the reason for taking a knee most obviously so he could appeal to the racist members of his base by claiming this was an act of disrespect for our flag and our troops, many who are Black and at least one who was a victim of a shooting , while unintentionally revealing his own racism, as he ignored a need to address an issue about the disparate treatment of Black men in so doing.

“Wow, NFL first game ratings are way down over an already really bad last year comparison. If the players stood proudly for our Flag and Anthem, and it is all shown on broadcast, maybe ratings could come back?”

Trump even opined,

“I think it’s personally not a good thing, I think it’s a terrible thing. And, you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him. Let him try, it won’t happen.”

Apparently Kaepernick should have found a country that does not defend the killing of unarmed Black men or might, at least, be willing to discuss the problem and propose solutions because Trump was making it clear this country wouldn’t.

Trump made it about patriotism, money, stadium attendance, and TV ratings.

In 2017 in Alabama, Trump offered this advice to N.F.L. owners on how to handle players who take a knee during the national anthem,

 “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired. He’s fired!”

He followed this with a tweet saying,

“If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”

“NFL attendance and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because they love our country. League should back U.S.”

No discussion of the issue was taking place.

When several Philadelphia Eagles showed their displeasure with this usurpation of the reason for taking a knee by saying they would not go to the White House for an event to honor their Super Bowl win, Trump called off the event, and, continuing to refuse to address the underlying reason, kept up his misrepresentation and involving the military by saying at another event,

“We will proudly be playing the National Anthem and other wonderful music celebrating our Country today at 3 P.M. The White House, with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus. Honoring America! NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!”

The Anthem and the bands who played it were weaponized to keep the distraction going.

And to create a useful visual, Pence walked out of a football game in Indianapolis when about a dozen San Francisco 49ers took a knee during the anthem, and Trump captioned it by tweeting,

“I asked VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and Second Lady Karen.”

They had proudly stood for racism.

He did what he could to promote the belief that any NFL player who took a knee was against the troops, while completely dismissing the It is very difficult to diagnose and can vary in the severity of the pain. order generic viagra pdxcommercial.com However, it is important to note that not all scenarios from diabetes will demonstrate being diabetic indications price tadalafil tablets unless of course typically the diabetes is the deposit of glucose in the blood. generic viagra cheap You cannot escape the aging process. Thirdly, Mast obtain at store buy cheap levitra Mood oil is very well-known herbal erection oil that can help to regain control to heighten sexual power for achieving complete satisfaction in sexual intercourse. fact that they were against deadly racial disparity.

Trump’s claim made it possible to exercise some pseudo-patriotism and in the name of the troops allow the disparity to go unaddressed.

Basically, for four years nothing was done, no discussion even held, and more Black men were killed, and now we see the chaos in the country, a chaos that could possibly have been prevented.

In the four years Since Kaepernick took a knee, and during the four years the issue was politicized mainly by those who did not experience the problem and opposed a discussion,

1.Natosha “Tony” McDade, 2. George Floyd, 3. Yassin Mohamed, 4. Finan H. Berhe, 5. Sean Reed, 6. Steven Demarco Taylor, 7. Ariane McCree, 8.  Terrance Franklin, 9. Miles Hall, 10. Darius Tarver, 11. William Green. 12. Samuel David Mallard, 13. Kwame “KK” Jones, 14. De’von Bailey, 15. Christopher Whitfield, 16. Anthony Hill, 17. De’Von Bailey, 18. Eric Logan, 19. Jamarion Robinson, 20. Gregory Hill Jr, 21. JaQuavion Slaton,  22. Ryan Twyman, 23. Brandon Webber, 24. Jimmy Atchison, 25. Willie McCoy,  26. Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr, 27. D’ettrick Griffin, 28. Jemel Roberson, 29. DeAndre Ballard, and 30. Botham Shem Jean

were killed for a yearly average of 7.5 per year.

And now with the death of George Floyd a limit has been reached intensified by its having been recorded from a number of angles and the delay in any action being taken.

The death and its aftermath could very well have been prevented if action had been taken to prevent the previous deaths, or at least something had been done no matter how weak.

Unfortunately, but predictably, as quick as he was to react to and hijack Kaepernick’s taking a knee for his own political gain, there has been very miniscule response to the death of George Floyd as Trump concentrates more on the results of it, the demonstrations, some of which have been hijacked.

Over the weekend with no events scheduled other than going to Florida to watch the rocket launch, meeting with Attorney General William Barr, a video teleconference with governors and law-enforcement officials, and lunch with Vice President Pence, Trump made an official statement about the death of George Floyd that included mention of his call to the Floyd family.

In the formal remarks this past weekend, he began with a unifying message starting with,

“I understand the pain that people are feeling.  We support the right of peaceful protesters, and we hear their pleas,”

a statement that ignored his dismissal of Kaepernick’s earlier right for peaceful protest and the pleas he should have heard, before politicizing it with,

“The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters, and anarchists.  The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses, and burning down buildings.”

Ironically, blind to his earlier reaction to Kaepernick and his not addressing his own fault in ignoring what the taking a knee was bringing attention to, he indicted himself by saying,

“Those making excuses or justifications for violence are not helping the downtrodden, but delivering new anguish and new pain.”

Would that include those who distract from the real issue?

He declared, again, ironically,

“Every citizen in every community has the right to be safe in their workplace, safe in their homes, and safe in our city streets.”

And, although he had tried to defend the marchers in Charlottesville by claiming that many were good people, he put his bigotry on display by adding,

“Radical-left criminals, thugs, and others all throughout our country and throughout the world will not be allowed to set communities ablaze.  We won’t let it happen.  It harms those who have the least.  And we will be protecting those who have the least.

This is the sacred right of all Americans that I am totally determined to defend and will defend.  My administration will always stand against violence, mayhem, and disorder.”

But he will observably do whatever he can to white-wash incidences of violence, mayhem, and disorder.

Like with COVID-19, Trump ignored the problem of Black men being killed by rogue cops while demonizing those peacefully demonstrating for some action on the issue until it too exploded while he attempts, as he did with the first taking of a knee, to make it about politics and himself.

He has tweeted,

“Sleepy Joe Biden’s people are so Radical Left that they are working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more. Joe doesn’t know anything about it, he is clueless, but they will be the real power, not Joe. They will be calling the shots! Big tax increases for all, Plus!”

He has quoted a segregationist governor from the Civil Rights era,

“When the looting starts, the shooting starts”

and warned demonstrators that if they got too close to the White House, they would face the “most ominous weapons”.

Over the weekend I had some pictures pop up on my Facebook feed. I understand the intent, but I wonder if anyone notices the irony.

In the picture there are police officers taking a knee in solidarity with those genuinely demonstrating against racial disparity, and this is good, especially knowing the majority of police officers are good people and that only the rogues are responsible for the unjustifiable deaths. It is a positive image in these troubling times.

Like most, I am impressed by the photos, but I wonder how things might have been different, making the police taking a knee unnecessary, if when Kaepernick did it, people didn’t make it about something it wasn’t about and had dealt with the real issue.

He deserves a big, guilt filled apology.

June is GLBT Pride Month.

It began one night in June in 1969 in New York City’s Greenwich Village at a dive bar.

It wasn’t organized and it wasn’t very pretty, and no one who was there that night knew that when their frustration at police raids boiled over it would ignite a movement that had been coming to a boil.

The Stonewall Rebellion was a spontaneous community reaction to yet another demeaning raid on a Gay bar that was routine back then, a reaction that then spread out like ripples from a pebble thrown in a pond.

In the years that followed, progress toward GLBT equality was achieved unevenly throughout the country with the gains made having to be defended from those who claim recognizing the rights of GLBT people would somehow reduce theirs, like giving a slice of pizza to the eighth person to arrive at the table where seven people already sat would somehow mean you could not eat the slice you already had.

My entry into GLBT activism was simple and quiet.

It began with accepting myself for who I am, the complete and true me, and not what even I thought I was supposed to be from the limited and filtered information I had stumbled upon or had heard from those who really did not know as their information was similarly limited and filtered.

When living in Boston I had joined the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus and, as was the tradition at the time, joined in my first Gay Pride Parade at the tail end of the organized parade where people were allowed to join in, carrying a banner I had made for those friends with whom I marched and who lived on Queensberry Street in Boston’s Fenway Gayborhood.

After the parade GLBT couples freely walked the streets of downtown Boston holding hands and engaging in public displays of affection taken for granted by straight people every day and not limited to one day a year on a weekend when the city streets were practically empty but for us.

It was a taste of what should be.

There was no shame in our normalcy.

When I got to Southern California, although further along in GLBT equality, there was still much progress to be made. I joined the Los Angeles and then the Long Beach Gay Men’s Choruses, began doing political cartoons for a local Gay newspaper, got involved in the Union’s GLBT subcommittee of which I was the chair when it became a full standing committee of the Union and marched for the first time in the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade representing the United Teachers of Los Angeles, and enjoyed what rights and equal treatment had been won before I arrived and increased while I was there and had helped work for.

Then I went to Oklahoma that was far behind Massachusetts and further behind Los Angeles. There I joined GLBT political and Civil Rights groups, attended multiple rallies, took on politicians and a school District to get policy protections for GLBT students, continued my cartoon work in a GLBT newspaper, and marched openly as a Gay Teacher in the Oklahoma City GLBT Pride parade carrying a sign declaring that.

Progress was made, and continues to be made, by some very fine and very hard working people there.

And then, to be closer to family, I returned to Massachusetts where, while I was away, in 1989 laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in credit, employment, union practices, housing, and public accommodations had been passed, and in May 2004 Marriage Equality had come to be.

There is still progress to be made and gained rights to be defended, but we are not just getting started, and we have seen with hard work and perseverance that full equality is possible, and we will attain it.