Living in the USA

I hope my friends and family will read this, especially those from other nations. This may help explain some important things about The United States.

Yesterday Ems and I went to Olympia to get out of the house, let her see more of Washington State, and to attend a political rally for conservatives and libertarians. It is not hard to know the different sides of the current debates. All sides have arguments, all sides have opinions. What I most firmly believe is that we are far too reliant on governments and the use of hierarchies.

These photos were from early in the event as people were just starting to arrive but the grassy area filled in very quickly once the speakers and the music started.

We needed a day out; Ems spends too much time in the house since she is reliant on me for transportation. I also wanted her to see an event like this. I have never been to a political event of any kind, although I have seen the aftermath of many in Seattle. She is also aware of what has been happening here and I did not want the riots and looting to be her only exposure to politics in America!!

I am so glad I went. Let me describe this as best I can. This is a huge park by a lake. Wide open grassy areas where people were standing, many sitting in folding chairs they brought. Many people were there with flags, banners, and there were booths where political candidates were there to speak to people, or their staff were. Also, there were a lot of people getting signatures on various petitions. There were a LOT of children of all ages, running around, rolling in the grass, if you can imagine a family gathering of about 500 people who are related but don’t all know each other. That is what the energy level was like. Live music, food trucks, basically a big party in the park. Many people had dogs and kids with them, and many stopped to ask about our dogs, or to let their kids play with them. There were people there of all races, mixed race families were obvious, but there was nothing racial about this event. There was not one sign having anything to do with race or creed, these people were purely there to enjoy the sun, the music, and to express frustration with the government and the biased and partial regulations surrounding the Covid 19 experience. The main focus of the energy there was against Jay Inslee and his obviously politically motivated regulations.

Now let me tell you some things that REALLY stood out in my brain as I sat in my chair, with the dogs at my feet, just taking this all in. Some of these thoughts came from Ems also, who being from Asia had NEVER seen anything like this.

First, more than half of the people there, both women and men, were armed with side arms (hand guns) of different kinds. I would guess that about 25% or more also had rifles of some kind, most of them semi-automatic of the AR15 variety although there was a smattering of tactical shotguns in the crowd. This is a hard thing for people to understand who are not from this culture. Ems was very uncomfortable with the idea at first, she has no experience with weapons and in Asia the only people that would have a weapon in public are the police or military, which is common there. For her, the combination of this kind of display of firepower and the family, jovial, environment is contradictory but as she watched and experienced it she understood that it is, in part, the presence of armed peaceful people that contributes to the calm and peace. It is a dramatic contrast to what we see in other parts of the city these days. All of the rioting and looting here is very disturbing and she was afraid that there would be something similar to that here. I had assured her that this was a different culture group, but even she was not prepared for the family fun environment of the park, the children running and playing, the music and food… and the presence of firearms. The thing that kept coming to my mind is being on a remote beach in Coron Palawan, in the Philippines, and there being a military looking police officer there in full battle gear. I was interested and surprised to see him there, which was a 30 minute boat ride from the city on a small island beach… just keeping an eye on things…. And the assurance that gave all of the people playing on that beach…. This is the same feeling I had yesterday except that the citizens provided the assurance x 100. In a time of extreme public tension, this was the most relaxed situation I have seen people in for more than a month.

There were so many contradictions between this event and the opposite we have seen the past few weeks. One of the post powerful was the relaxed posture of the police who were there. Of course, in this supercharged time of riots and confrontation, when there is a large political rally the police are assigned. I have seen how they are dressed and their posture, the stress, when they have to be at a rally or march by the “other” political side. Watching these officers yesterday, men and women, mingling in the crowd, chatting with people, smiling at the children who are curious about them, the difference is amazing. With all of the weapons on display some might think they are MORE likely to be edgy and nervous, but the opposite is true. They were laughing, chatting, circling through the crowd.

I noticed at one point that they arrested a guy that they were talking to for about 5 minutes. This conversation was about 30 feet from me, and I had been watching it the whole time with no idea that there was any issue. Nothing about the casual conversation the officers were having with the guy indicated to me that they were going to arrest him but then he turned, put his hands behind his back while an officer put him in handcuffs and they walked him away.

The most remarkable thing about this, of course, is the contrast to what we have seen all over town in the past couple of weeks with police officers rolling on the ground trying to arrest someone and the surrounding observers shouting at the police and throwing things at them. This was completely the opposite, the man simply let them take him away and although the people around the event were aware and curiously watching, there was no interference or resistance of any kind. The contrast was profound and the way that the police handled the matter, in my opinion, was affected by the fact that they felt no threat or anticipation of an issue other than arresting someone who was going to comply and submit. I want to be clear that I don’t know why they arrested the man, but he did not seem to be drunk or on drugs from his behavior and the entire matter could not have been more peaceful or contradictory from what we have seen in other situations. Draw your own conclusions but to me it seem that since the officers did not EXPECT any issues they were not on edge. They felt no threat, so they did not present any, even while arresting a man in the presence of hundreds of weapons. I wish I had videoed the arrest, but it was so unremarkable that I just didn’t even think to record it. It was both, at once, unremarkable and profound and I’m still processing all of it. As I said, it was a day of contrasts and compmarisons for me, and that is what I am sharing.

I will just wrap this up by saying that it was a great day, much fun, met some really nice people and their kids, and I find myself wondering where there might be more events like this that we can attend. It was a mix of concert, family reunion, and country fair all wrapped into one and, since they probably aren’t going to have the State Fair this year, at least I know where I can get my fill of great corn dogs!! Next time I promise I’ll take more pictures, yesterday I was just taking it all in and enjoying getting around people again!