In The Streets

Fellow Bloggers Jim and John might be interested in this stuff.  So, here's a quick account of the Boston Common on Monday.  The protest "fallout" area, if you will, which was still pretty active when I got there at six p.m.

It's been tough absorbing the military presence from yesterday.  A handful of soldiers, a scattering of police on the sidewalk and in marked and unmarked cars, with just a smattering of MBTA police thrown in for comic relief.  And that was just at Park Street.

Once again, my bag was not checked.  Not once.  0 for 60 at least this month.  Closest I came was when an female soldier asked if a bag was mine when I set it down in the middle of the common to chat and stepped a bit away from it. 

This morning, when I read that someone got checked on the Orange Line, I went, "Aaahhhh.  Of course..."  Before July began, I figured the poorer neighborhoods could double whatever commute time we had to add on (which for me most others has been about zero, luckily). 

Last night's highlight at The Common was hanging out for an hour with Billy Barnum and another person whose name escapes me but could be best described as the ballroom brawling liberal type who, by his account scared some more conservative liberals off.  I was hoping for an opportunity to sic him on the trucks with the aborted fetus and the yahoo on the speaker, as they kept driving around the block.

Admittedly, I threw some comments at the fake punks who were standing around for Bush, one of them with hair obviously colored with the same canned spraypaint my sister and I used for Halloween as kids.  How much CD money did the the nearby Republican office give them for their time, I wonder?

I also bought a "Bushwacker" flyswatter for a really good cause.

In all, it felt good to be all political and talkative in the same streets these soldiers were standing in.  Was it bravado?  Or was it, as I pondered later, because they made me feel safe the same way my more conservative roommate said she felt safe with them around?

Yeah, Chad, it's easy to be brave when you know you're skin color allows you at least one "Get Out Of Rubber Bullet's Path Free" card.

Or maybe....it's the calm before the storm that will almost undoubtedly be coming down in New York.  I have a feeling the military are going to wish they saved some of the OT hours the Boston soldiers are hopefully getting here, because they already need it in August.