(no subject)

[austin_tycho]

The breakfast and march was fine. I arrived a bit before 7:30 and the Sun hadn't even gotten up yet. Traffic was not bad, and parking was a cinch. They assigned people to tables and I sat with a tableful of Christians, which made me a little squirmy. No one was in the least bit unfriendly, I think I was just shy and sleepy. But for the most part we listened to speeches and a couple of very impassioned poems and some more speeches. They tried to have us all discuss what we were going to do to change the world with each other, and I just nodded and smiled and let the talkative ones go nuts; I wasn't really feeling very conversational. Then after a rousing little sermon we all went to get on the bus to go to the march. There were about, oh, 50 of us, a mix of clergy and police officers and a couple of family members and politicians. I had the order wrong- we went to the capitol and were going to march back to the college I was just at. It seems this wasn't a little event- there were approximately a zillion people there. Lots of people with banners and signs, lots of politicians speechifying about having dreams and whatall. Then we all walked back to the college (Huston-Tillotson, a black Baptist college and the same one I've been asked to speak at incidentally- it's apparently the oldest college in Austin). I was amazed at how many people there were- I've been in marches before (women's rights, war sucks, et cetera) and this was by far the largest. The walk wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. It was in the 30's and I was sufficiently layered so it felt brisk and I did enjoy it. I love marches. I maintained radio silence but saw all sorts of people chatting companionably and carrying signs for peace and equality and justice and all that good stuff.

Now, off to the stooopid training. Bleh.