What have we become?

Black lives matter.

I just got back from the protest downtown. Until now, I've mostly had to watch the protests from afar. I've been keeping the house running here while my wife has been distributing supplies and assisting protesters. She's been amazing, and I am super proud of her.

But this is my first experience with it firsthand. It was powerful. I watched a young black man with a megaphone share his deepest fears and most honest rage with an entire crowd of strangers. I watched cops, in full armor, order peaceful protesters to stop blocking the street, and then take up position to block the street themselves. The absurdity was lost on them, I think.

I also got harassed by an angry, white, construction worker type, driving his truck in circles around the march, yelling at people out his window with a bullhorn. "Get a job," he yelled at me. As he wasted his time driving in circles and harassing people trying to make a difference. Absurdity was everywhere tonight, but it must have been wearing a gillie suit. Very few seemed to notice.

I got the car close right before the pigs started clearing people out. They were supposedly bringing in tear gas and their LRAD (sonic mental disruptor- this is not fantasy; it is a real and terrifying thing).

We were trying to wait to evacuate people who got attacked. However the man-babies ran us off before they could start injuring people. Protect and serve.

When I was in school, they told me America was a melting pot. That the whole idea was that we all just live together and keep being ourselves. That we'd all just live our lives and look out for each other. That culture and skin color shouldn't matter. I think a lot of people have missed that lesson.

And that's why the protests are necessary.