October 22: CHEF

Okay, so the Black man behind the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, in February of 1960 is probably not a chef. You might call him a “soda jerk” or maybe he’s a busboy. Whatever, he’s working there. But the four guys on the other side (Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, William Smith, and Clarence Henderson) are NOT supposed to be there. This is day two of the sit-ins that would protest the segregationist policies of Woolworth and the South. The other two members of the “Greensboro Four,” David Richmond and Ezell Blair Jr., are not in this picture, but together they helped spread the “sit-in” movement of the Civil Rights era.

Can you imagine walking into an establishment that actively prohibits your presence, then sitting down at the lunch counter and ordering food while other patrons jeer at you and assault you? My god, these people were courageous. And you know what? That lunch counter is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

October 21: SLEEP

I planned this entry before the city of Louisville announced the indictments connected with the killing of Breonna Taylor, shot while she slept by police officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove. Hankison, who had already been dismissed from the force, was charged with “wanton endangerment” of people in the apartments surrounding Taylor’s. The fact that an innocent woman was killed in a raid on the wrong home was ignored. No justice.

October 20: CORAL

The day after the inauguration of President Trump, the nation saw the largest single day protest in US history, the Women’s March. Three to five MILLION people took to the streets to advocate for women’s and immigrant’s rights, healthcare reform, LGBTQ rights…and to protest the misogynistic views and statements of the President himself.

The symbol of the protest was the iconic “Pussy Hat,” which was kind of coral colored (okay, it was pink), which came from the President’s now-infamous statement: “You can grab them by the pussy.” This statement was only one of the many that would have ended anyone else’s political career, and which signaled that America no longer cared about decency or integrity. The Women’s March showed that America, and the world at large, still cared.

This was one of the few protest marches I ever joined, and certainly the largest. I went because my wife is a woman, my kids are women, my mom was a woman, and I'd say about half the people I know are women.