Back in 17, a buddy and I decided to head down to DC to cause a ruckus at the inauguration. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision.

We made signs that morning. Mine said "ACA, HERE TO STAY"
His was written in messy red paint resembling blood and said, "TRUMP IS PUTIN"S BITCH"

We met a local woman on the metro and she was ecstatic to see us. She kept shouting, "I Found My People!" She tagged along with us to the National Mall and stayed with us the whole day. She was really cool and it was a blast hanging out with her.

As we were waiting to be let through the barrier onto the Mall, we were of course surrounded by red hats who eyed us with rage and literally kept back from us. Social distancing before there was a pandemic. There was one of those hate preachers on a mega phone going on about the sins of the homosexuals. There were cops everywhere and they paid very close attention to us, because of our signs I'm guessing and the fact that we looked like a couple of hippies. There were cops barking orders and people saying hateful things and I remember turning to my friend and saying "Well, I guess this is what fascism feels like." It was just a joke at the time but looking back on it now, it does seem like like the start of something sinister.

After being searched we walked into an open space in the midsection of the Mall. We weren't really sure what to do so we just meandered around. There was a big crowd down by the Capital but we stayed away. People would stop and get into arguments with us. They were particularly pissed about my friends sign. A journalist stopped to take pictures of us and asked us a few questions. I wish I knew who he worked for. I'd love to have those pictures now.

Eventually Trump had his parade and before the cops let us get close to the barricaded street, they made me throw away my lunch so I wouldn't be able to throw it at the passing vehicles. I had no intention of doing that but they didn't care. We found some young hooligans there who were also carrying signs and they asked us for money because they had hopped trains from Indiana or someplace to attend. They then led us to the area where a protest was going on. We had no idea and were wondering why we hadn't seen any of our own kind. We had been in the wrong area the whole time.

There was a concert going on there. A punk band would play a song followed by a speaker and then another song. It was wild. There were a lot of really strange people but we of course felt much more comfortable around them than the red hats. A native American speaker was going on about being sprayed by hoses in the middle of winter. I had no idea what she was talking about. It was the first I'd heard of the pipeline protests at Standing Rock.

We started hearing some chaos down the street so we went to investigate. What we found was a line of cops in riot gear blocking the street and a bunch of people yelling at them. We assumed they were coming to clear the concert but they just stood there. We became curious about what was behind them, what they were guarding, so we walked around the block to come up behind them. There was nothing there, just an open street. Eventually, we understood that, they weren't doing anything. It was a show of force. They were just standing there looking menacing in order to piss people off and provoke them into doing something stupid. We went back around to the front and decided to get in close. I helped some guys hold up a banner right in front of them and they hit us with tear gas. Fortunately, there were people prepared for that and poured milk of magnesia in our eyes and that stopped the burning instantly. I remember thinking that it was really odd that they would do that to us just for being there and expressing ourselves.

We returned the following day with a much larger group for the Woman's March. Pinky, the woman we had met on the train the previous morning, joined us and she was really eager to meet all of our friends. My memory of it is not fond. It was just a bunch of waiting in traffic, waiting in a big crowd, unable to move, and waiting for the restroom, which was impossible. I can say, the crowd at the march dwarfed the little crowd we saw at the inauguration.

So that was my experience as a political protester. I hope it interesting enough to justify reading all that.