Today was the Martin Luther King holiday and I found my own strange way to celebrate it, riding a train south from New York to Washington for tomorrow's little get together in the nation's capital. Tomorrow is J17, the opening day of the Congress, and the day the same Congress will be "Occupied" by protesters streaming in from all over the country. Given the weather forecast and the time of year it will be interesting to see how many people actually attend but as of now, considering all the buses arriving in the morning, it looks like it will be big. The idea is to have a mass demonstration on the first day of the session and let the members of Congress know that, even though it's an election year, they waste another year of our lives at their on peril.
Although I had thought about going I hadn't actually planned on making the trip until Ash came up with the idea of my doing some work for her while I was in Washington. So that is why I found myself on a train heading south, gazing out the window at the cold landscape and cities along the way, and thinking about somebody totally unrelated to my destination. I've been told I get my love of history from my great grandfather, a man I never met. His name was Bill and he worked for the railroad most of his life. I have seen photos of him in the station he ran, those totally awesome grainy old photos that so simply show us where we came from. Everybody has them somewhere, tucked away in drawers, books, or in boxes in the attic. Those photos are a link to a past we never met but somehow feel we did. I heard someone ask today what Martin Luther King would have thought of the Occupy movement. I want to know what Bill would have thought.
While this trip is strictly for observation and photo taking it's nice to have some friends offer help should the need for bail money come into play. For the record bail in DC ranges from $50 to $100.
Although I had thought about going I hadn't actually planned on making the trip until Ash came up with the idea of my doing some work for her while I was in Washington. So that is why I found myself on a train heading south, gazing out the window at the cold landscape and cities along the way, and thinking about somebody totally unrelated to my destination. I've been told I get my love of history from my great grandfather, a man I never met. His name was Bill and he worked for the railroad most of his life. I have seen photos of him in the station he ran, those totally awesome grainy old photos that so simply show us where we came from. Everybody has them somewhere, tucked away in drawers, books, or in boxes in the attic. Those photos are a link to a past we never met but somehow feel we did. I heard someone ask today what Martin Luther King would have thought of the Occupy movement. I want to know what Bill would have thought.
While this trip is strictly for observation and photo taking it's nice to have some friends offer help should the need for bail money come into play. For the record bail in DC ranges from $50 to $100.
