I LIKE YOUR SHIRT

I first wore this shirt for a reenactment weekend and a fiftyish woman trailing after a man, maybe her husband, sidled up to me and murmured, "I like your shirt," before going on. I barely managed a quick acknowledgement. Maybe her husband/significant other had different political opinions?

Then in the Village, a fortyish woman came up to me and said with a smile, "I like your shirt!" I was enthusiastic in my thanks.

I've had a few more women approach, read what's on the shirt, and say exactly the same thing. "I like your shirt." Some are like the first lady, speaking softly as if afraid to be overheard. Others are bold and outspoken.

Resisting is hard and sometimes lonely. It's easier when we can connect with others who are frightened at changes relating to the environment, healthcare, personal freedoms, and future military adventures. I never paid much attention to politics until now, but the election made me look closer at what's happening and I don't like it. Evidently, more people than I expected, feel the same way.

I bought the shirt online through Teesprings. I don't usually pay so much for a tee shirt, but profits from sales of this one go to support the ACLU. Teesprings has other shirts that benefit other charities, too. An easy way to support your cause.

PS - The shirt is resting on our new sofa. We now have a bed, washer, dryer, TV, and sofa. We're getting there in our move!

MAKING OUR VOICES HEARD

The exclusive island next to us hosts an annual conference for the American Enterprise Institute, a collection of billionaires and millionaires and other well-heeled right-wing people. Current or former members include Newt Gingrich, Betsy DeVos (no longer listed on the board), Dick Cheney, et cetera. There are also business officials from such companies as Coors, International Paper, American Express, Dell and others. People attending this year possibly included (they are very secretive) Mitch McConnell, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, George W. Bush, the Koch brothers, Paul Ryan and other government officials.

Anyway, there were over a hundred corporate or private jets parked at our little airport. Here's a photo of the ones parked on the back runway.

The bunch of conservative attendees came to the attention of a new resistance group I've joined. The island they met on is private, so on the last day, our leaders set up a protest at the airport gates where limousines enter to drop off passengers. A young relative helped make my sign:

Since our area is mostly conservative, we were unsure of the turnout but eighty to a hundred protesters showed up, some for a few minutes, others staying for over two hours. We were thrilled, especially since we had little time to let people know. Here's a picture taken before the limos started arriving:

After a few SUV limos went in, they stopped coming.

Ah, but we had someone following them out from the exclusive island who tipped us off: the limos were detouring to another entrance to the airport.

So a few of us ambled down about half a mile down the road to that gate. Here we are with our signs:

When we got there, a guard in a truck got on his phone and soon the limos stopped coming in there, too. So we went back up to the front for a while. Ended up coming back to the second gate. Finally had to give up about two or so hours.

Drivers in passing cars didn't know what to make of us. We had several go by shouting "Trump!" or "Make America Great!" or "Go home!" The nicer people among us called back "Thank you!" to every one of the jeers. I just hid behind my sign. One diesel pickup got up close to us and revved his engine, sending black smoke all over white outfits. But we persisted. And then people started driving by honking horns and giving us thumbs up. I didn't know we had so many sympathizers on our island!

I'm sure the bigwigs took little notice of us, but we got to voice our disapproval of what's going on in our government. And that's democracy, isn't it? That's what truly makes America great!