So today was my third big protest since, well, you know. I've decided/deduced that when the only protest near me is the one in the nearest big city, I tend to not want to go. You know there's gonna be issues finding parking and more likelihood of issues with cops and whatnot.

For whatever reason, nobody ever seems to throw a protest in my town, but another small town about 20-ish minutes from here was doing one, so I decided to go to that one. I go to that town pretty often but mostly just for their big shopping area, not to their downtown (which somehow has almost no businesses open even on a Saturday morning, wtf?).

This one actually had NO cops, the organizer said there was one on call but they never were called. I saw three cop cars drive by at the end and that was it. The organizer said they expected about 36 people and 285 showed up, so that is impressive. I guess three of us came from my town. Small children, ages 6-11, were speaking at this one. Mostly it was people standing on both sides of the street with signs, and a bunch of speeches in the middle. I was disappointed there was no marching whatsoever and I wanted to say something but figured someone would say "It's too hot" and that was probably why. Sigh.

I had one sign with a Trump-inkblot head and saying something along the lines of "Oh great, now everyone's gonna need 40-60 years of therapy after this" and the other was quoting Cher Horowitz on immigration in Clueless. Who woulda thought that "it does NOT say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty!" was gonna be anything but a joke? I kind of am debating making that into a shirt now or something. Folks seemed to like them.

This was about 25 minutes away from me and I usually don't go there that often other than for shopping, so I can't say I know what kind of people usually live there. I assumed more liberal bubble. I felt a little bad because it was SO local and they were talking about local issues and getting on their county mailing lists or whatever and I was all "hm, I'm from the next county over, better not." They also pointed out that nobody on their city council showed up and I guess the council had to be harangued into declaring June as pride month, so.... But locals were honking back at us, a lot.

Also, there were two hecklers. This is my third protest and so far everyone at them has been on "our side," so I was surprised on that. One guy was there before it began and left fairly quickly, but one guy showed up in full Trump regalia with shirt, "patriotic" suspenders and a giant Trump 2020 flag, with his dog. At first a lady walked up to him with her "I will not stay silent" sign and just stared at him and he walked off, which was great, but then he joined the protesters on the side of the street and was making comments. One girl went over to the sign making booth and made herself a new sign and then stood next to him. It said "Screw this guy --->" Eventually he left too.

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