Despite feeling lethargic and unmotivated at the tail end of having Covid (again!), I made my way to downtown Albany because today was 50501—50 protests at 50 state capitals all on 1 day. Living right near a state capital, I felt compelled to show up.
It’s been a difficult few months since the election, and an even tougher couple of weeks since the inauguration. Our country has been divided into two teams, and through my behavior and words I want to be clear I’m on the antifascist team.
Damn it was cold, and windy, and icy. The sun was out but mostly mocking us—just a bright, useless disk in the sky, providing no warmth whatsoever. I guessed about 800-1,000 protesters, many shouting slogans and carrying signs about saving democracy or attacking Musk or demanding that Congress grow a pair and fight against this coup.
We marched around the Capitol and then the group gathered for speeches. I ducked out. I didn’t need speeches. I just needed to be present and accounted for. On my way down the street, I came across two men in a serious and loud confrontation, hurling horrific insults and challenging the other to make the first move. I stopped about twenty feet away and watched. The things they said!
It’s distressing the way we’ve become enemies to each other, so hateful, puppets to the powerful. I was trying to decide if I would intervene if they got physically violent and was preparing to do so, but then the state police pulled up. I walked away, into the weak sunshine, into the cold, onto the otherwise deserted Empire State Mall.
