Shine the Light

There’s a group called Beacon for Democracy that gathers on Thursdays to protest the policies of the current administration and the daily trauma that ICE is inflicting upon the immigrant population of this country. From 4:30 - 5, we greet the start of rush hour with signs, smiles, and waves. I’ve attended for the last two weeks, and the overwhelming reaction from drivers has been playful, supportive beep-beep-beeps and thumbs ups, with a very small percentage of negative reactions. When demonstrating on the side of a busy thoroughfare, a series of short beep-beep-beeps = “yeah, baby!”, a long cranky one, not so much…

Tonight in 14 degrees we were out there. The vast majority of driver reactions were positive. We even got a big truck blast, the kind you always try to get truck drivers to do when you’re a kid in the backseat. On the maga-tool side, two guys actually rolled their window down to yell something like “ice ice baby” (the most laughably unimaginative taunt), and one guy told us to get a job, which was hilarious. He was like a caricature crank from a 70’s Mad Magazine. He froze his car out for that?

One guy on foot wanted to know what we were protesting. I’m not sure if he truly did not know - he seemed to have no opinion either way except to say we were entitled to our opinion. He wanted to know who all the faces on my sign were. I told him that three of the people were shot to death by ICE, and one died within 24 hours of ICE detention after suffering an unexplained “medical emergency”. The man nodded somberly and went on his way. Passersby expressed positivity and thanks as they walked by, which was heartening.

Here are the signs I carried today. There are so many more faces to draw. If you’d like to download them to make signs of your own, please feel free to do so.