No Kings III...

Today is the third No Kings rally. It's the first one we won't be attending. We already had something on the calendar when the date was announced. I actually weighed noping out of our plans and going to the rally and then realized that would go against my "guard your own happiness" parts of surviving this regime.

So instead of joining the crowd out in the burbs of Beaverton and cheering for signs, and waving at honking cars, and fellowshipping with fellow fed up Americans we will join the crowd at the Thorns match and yell at the refs and fellowship with a different group of Americans. Which, as Brent pointed out, any Thorns match is part protest anyway so it will work.

I will be interested to see if the crowd will be lighter at the game because of the No Kings rally. The Rose City Riveters (the Thorns supporters group) is very politically active. Soccer itself tends to be a political sport, at least in the US and in the PNW especially, the supporters groups on the women's side and the men's tend to lean liberal and vocal. Because of that I know there is a lot of crossover on "people who attend Thorns matches" and "people who attend protests" and as this is a really large protest I wonder how many people will make the opposite choice that Brent and I made.

I don't think there is a wrong choice. Maybe I'm saying that to justify the one I made, but I really don't think so. I've said all along you need to find balance. Protest, donate, write, celebrate happy times, have fun with friends, read quietly, rock in a corner while you contemplate the demise of your once beloved country. It's all about balance. Today our balance will be going to the match instead of the march.

I do hope we all end up winners.