Life in the Time of Corona

At 7:00 the organizers from the Janeese Lewis George campaign called on everyone to take a knee for Black lives. From my knee, I couldn't see far, but I could see that for a minute or two the whole scene did just that. 7:00 was when the curfew started. It was sunny. I'd just gotten to the polling site. It wasn't till later that I realized the line snaked around almost 2 city blocks, around the park. That the wait was about 4-5 hours. At 9:30ish, I wanted to get to the back of the line to make sure they got snacks, so I walked in the street. It was then that I realized that there was no one driving on the street. It was silent. It was empty. After hours of dodging cars jaywalking on Georgia at previous poll hang outs, it was eerie. After living off Georgia for 10 years, it was eerie. DC's felt quiet in the pandemic, but this is another level. I felt like I could just walk down the double yellow line as far as I wanted. I had heard about the polling stations during ...

Sunday night I was laying in bed, cuddling Riley while he fell asleep, when I got a text from a number I didnt know. Legba had been arrested by the White House. I spent this last weekend how I’ve spent most of the last 3 years, in my little family bubble watching the world blow up around us, not knowing how to help. Frantically checking my phone for every update, worried about my friends in the streets, and not able to do anything except hold my baby. It’s hard to not be in the streets right now, or organizing support work, or doing anything at all. Last week I started a blog post about the beginning of summer, but that seems so distant now. The world has changed so dramatically so many times in the past 3 months, and I don’t think it’s done yet. For a while we (along with everyone else) were feeling like we were living in Groundhog Day, but that’s over. Riley kept joyously saying “it’s grand hop day!” Sometimes it was even “Purple Grand Hop Day.” Today I’m going to go vote for Janee...

At the end of last week, Phase 1 was starting. I made plans for my new coworker to have her first ever DC JWJ in-person meeting by doing her weekly check in with me in my back yard. Today, her sister who she lives with tested positive for COVID and her daughter has a fever. At the end of last week, I was planning to dedicate all my extra emotional energy and outdoor time to the most important political priority: getting Janeese elected. Today, it seems like nothing compared to the resistance happening downtown and across the country. In the second week of March we couldn't imagine the third week of March. Last week, we couldn't imagine this week.