First day setting up the Vigil For Democracy
Saturday was my first day trying to setup the Vigil For Democracy in the wild. It didn’t go particularly well, I had never set it up fully before and there are a lot of pieces. I realized later I had picked a bad spot and angle to the sidewalk in my nervousness, and there was little chance of many people stopping.
Community Building Project Model Bulletin Board
No one at all read my flyers about community building projects, except for a minute the guy who was barking at me about Israel and Gaza while he walked his dog toward the farmer’s market. I could feel the hostility in the otherwise serene morning air. I couldn’t engage, it’s such a waste of time to argue about the morality of it, and always a trap laid by people who want to engage about it. I don’t want to debate semantics, I wrote the sign because that’s what I wanted to say about it, those three words, a lamentation. God save Gaza. God save Israel.
Other than that, no one really stopped. My setup was bad, honestly. I passed out a few pretty penny protest flyers, did one interview, and helped one person at the Vigil For Democracy station.
The voter, Robert, needed to change his address. He was happy to fill out a voter registration postcard, which I will turn into the Kansas City Board of Elections on Monday, the voter being in Jackson county. He said he was afraid the state was going to kick him off the rolls, and I agreed with him.
The paper registration card is nice because they send you a voter card in the mail within seven business days. A good verification, and easy to find and see your voting precinct when Election Day nears.
Overall, about what I expected for the first day, the setup was rough, and there was a chance I would pick a bad spot and angle myself to people poorly, and that’s exactly what happened. It’s good to get that out of the way. Now I can tighten up the booth, laminate a few things, and try again.
I did get the first bottle of protest pennies made, so that’s one positive aspect of day one.
