March for Change

 I spent the better part of Valentine's Day doing something I had never done before. I participated in a March for Change in Hartford at the State Capitol building. The change for which we assembled is to have better gun laws.  My perfect choice would be to ban military type assault weapons and large gun magazines. I doubt that would ever happen, but at least people are talking about it and hopefully something good will come from it.

It was a  brilliant winter day, temps in the forties and a clear sunny sky.  This is a picture of the capitol building with the volunteers selling t-shirts and giving away green hats to wear. We got there quite early, expecting a longer drive from Danbury (it only took an hour) and we found a parking garage near by. There were not many people there then, but the crowd swelled to over 5,500.  

We were asked to wear as much green as possible.  I do have a lot of green in my wardrobe, but not a green coat, so I had to do with green gloves and scarf.  We were also encouraged to make signs to carry.  I made this one and printed my slogan in green, so I don't know why it photographed red.  It was very distinctive and garnered it's share of attention and I noticed it being photographed several times.   I thought it was a good choice for Valentine's Day. Most other signs were green and white. My friend, Ginny, was my travel companion.

We were toward the front of the crowd and I turned around  in three directions to take pictures, but it doesn't give any idea of how large the crowd was. You can read some of the other signs.

I was so glad that I went. It was an inspirational day with many speakers, including the governor, Christine Baransky, parents of murdered children, victims of gun violence, several elected officials, and some beautiful music. It lasted about 90 minutes.

When I got home there was a message on my AM that I found so offensive from some radical group wanting to impeach Obama for several reasons including the fact that he is stomping on their second amendment rights. I was so furious that I called back the phone number listed in Washington, DC.  I really wanted to give someone a piece of my mind, but all I got was another recording asking me if I wanted to donate to the cause. Yeah, right!  But I could press 3 to be taken off their calling list.  You can be sure that I did that.

 I'm sorry if I offended anyone with this post, but I really feel so strongly about this. Something has to change!

Happy Valentine's Day!