I may be a bad liberal.

I had to be at work at 8am today.  I am in a front-facing, guest assistance position and sit at a computer with no speakers attached, so I was unable to watch any of the protests live.  The most I could do was steal a few looks at Facebook throughout the day to see so many friends and family attending rallies all over the country, adding their voices to the hundreds of thousands standing up against the anticipated tyranny of this new administration.  All I had to contribute was my "likes" and "loves" to their photos and posts.  I have watched a couple of videos since, and it looks like they were absolutely awesome, and I mean that in the proper definition, not the colloquial slang.

         

As today drew closer and I heard about more and more of these events being organized around the country, I did a little searching to see if there would be anything happening in Las Vegas, as I hadn't heard of any plans, which seemed odd.  All I could find were old stories about protests that happened outside his hotel during the campaign.  Turns out there was a march here today, too; I couldn't be happier about that.  What upsets me is I don't know if I would have attended even if I knew about it enough in advance to arrange the time off from work.

I'm three weeks into this blog.  If you haven't noticed by now, I have some pretty strong opinions about things.  I stand firmly behind those opinions.  However, I, like most other cowards (especially these days), feel stronger behind a keyboard and a screen than I do in person.  I've never seen myself as a rah-rah, shout-and-scream, in-your-face protester.  It's probably a combination of fears: fear that I really don't know what I'm talking about, fear of not being able to respond intelligently if confronted with opposing views on the spot, and fear of possible repercussions if things get ugly.  When it comes down to it, I'm a phony with a big mouth.  Hey, maybe that means I can be president, too!  Then I wouldn't have to protest!  The difference is I would be compassionate and actually listen to advisers who know more than I do.

So to all of you who attended a rally and marched for what we believe is right, thank you, I love you, I am in awe of you, and you are far better people than I.  I hope to be you when I grow up.