Hands Off! Festival On Colorado Blvd

Michael Sedano

There are no rude bridges along this stretch of Colorado Boulevard--the famed Route 66--where the Rose Parade marches along on January First. Here, embattled citizens stood, their flags to April's sunny weather unfurled. These thousands weren't alone; the crowd is  fired up knowing they're part of a national shout heard round the country: Hands Off!

Shoulder-to-shoulder throngs of people jostling at curbside shake placards at honking cars cruising the scene. Groups of cars move past with the regularity of traffic signals, many shouting affirmations, several holding signs or throwing hand signals. The people shout and scream with joyful anger.

Steady lines of excited people move in both directions on the sidewalk, phalanxed by people leaning against storefronts, perhaps taking a breather from the frenetic energy in the front rows, where motivation grows from a full agenda of issues.

Public Land. Our Bodies. Universities. USPS. Medicaid. Private Data. Our ballots. Our children's future. FDA. FEMA. EPA. Libraries. The Press. LGBTQ+ Rights. Free Speech. Our courts. Environment. Our energy. Our Sanity. Our jobs. Our wallets. SocialSecurity. 

The grievances addressed make diverse sources of public pain and suffering. The insults of the regime in power go on beyond the ability to couch one's feelings on a single placard. One protestor has a succinct view of why she and everyone else is here on the street today: 

I have too much outrage to fit on this sign.

Not all signs come with an ironic smile. There's a perceptible damper on the crowd when they see the ominous portrait in blood red labeled, Traitor. For some sign-makers, it's a no-holds-barred event where they let it all hang out.

Traitor

Our signs are useless: they don't read the Constitution 

Angry women will change the world

Fight back for the rule of law

What a stupid mess.

It's a warning not a manual!

Democracy not Dictatorship

Fight Ignorance not Immigrants 

Hands Off All Of It!

Protest and Patriotism define the history of this nation's ongoing struggle to reflect its foundation values and Constitution. Old Glory was hailed proudly in the gleaming sunlight carried by walkers, rampant from car windows, on the bicycle.

Democracy shouldn't be messy, and the Pasadena demonstration was as clean and orderly as one could imagine, given the chaos that leads to this community of voices. You can't tell a Republican from a Democrat from an Independent in a crowd speaking as with a single voice.

Hands Off!

It's not grasping for straws to see the coalescence of like-minded, high-spirited people coming together for these few hours in a community, because community matters. Acting as if what they're doing out here matters. Like it makes a difference. The subrosa anger smoldering beneath smiles and silly signs waits for something to ignite it. Not empty words filling a filibuster, not vandalizing someone's fancy car, not wrongfully deported souls; something. Someone.

The festival on Colorado occasioned genuine joy among thousands of people who got the word. That alone--communication and networked messages--offers a hopeful sign that the energy witnessed along the boulevard will reach these, and more ears, at some future day when something substantive arises, when masses of protesting dancing revelers can make a difference and get something done..

A ver.

Liberty and Justice for All

Chinga tu MAGA

Foxtrot Delta Tango

Stop President F Elon Now

Does this ass make my country look small?

Fight Fascism

F D T

c/s